Les Fantômes de Guerre

Very much a film of two halves, a very good first half, and a pretty awful second half.

Early on, I loved the atmosphere, the implied threat, and the build up, it had a really eerie, uncomfortable feeling, and then.... The Soldiers take out a German platoon, and it all goes to pot. They took a really interesting ghost story, and stripped away its identity, a real shame, it was leading somewhere.

The clues were there, and at some point didn't somebody mention horror movies?

I applaud them for trying something different, had they stuck to the original course, it would have been an 8, you got to see how some o the soldiers behaved, and the harrowing events they must have witnessed.

Good at the start, shocking at the end, still worth a look, 6/10.

As I started watching I just kept thinking why all the negative reviews, this is one of the best war/horror movies. Interesting premise, good acting, chilling atmosphere. I just loved it; but as the movie got to the end, it turned complete 180 & made a fool out of it's audience,the twist was just out of nowhere & completely ridiculous. It's as if the writer hated writing this movie & wanted it to fail. It would've been a fine supernatural horror movie if it stickied to what it started out with; but no, the writer had to subvert the audience expectation. He must've been thinking he was so brilliant to come up with this lame ending. God, what a disappointment, an hour and half down the toilet all because of the ending. A perfectly fine horror movie ruined because the writer had to write this stupid nonsensical ending. What a waste of time & talent.

Ghosts of War started out great. It felt like it could be the prefect combination of Band of Brothers and House on Haunted Hill. The premise is simple: U.S. World War 2 soldiers ordered to hold down a strategic location in France, which happens to be a haunted chateau where Nazi soldiers previously committed horrible crimes. I really had high hopes for this film but as it progressed those hopes diminished. The setting is great and the film relies on appropriately creepy atmospheric tension. I mean they're in a really big creepy castle full of strange occurrences. Whats not to like about that? On top of that, the main cast of soldiers were likable. I enjoyed seeing Theo Rossi, who you might recognize as Shades from Marvel Studios/Netflix' Luke Cage series. Alan Ritchson, Brenton Thwaites, and Kyle Gallner, my favorite of the group who played U.S. army sniper Tappert, where all very good.

Unfortunately....and this is a big huge deal-breaker for me, the ending did not live up to the rest of the film. This is me being nice about it. To be honest it infuriated me. It made me feel like I wasted 1hr and 34 minutes getting invested in this story which suddenly transformed into something that I was not expecting nor wanted. All they had to do is stick with the theme of WW2 soldiers stuck in a haunted house during war. That's it. How they managed to ruin the last part of this film defies logic. Someone should be fired over this horrendous decision. I want to recommend it based on how good most of the film was, but the ending completely destroyed my recommendation. Yes, it's THAT BAD.

Beautifully shot with great cinematography, but the story gradually disappoints because its thematic ambitions add more clutter than depth to a story that's most effective at its simplest. The convoluted "twist" either needed to be omitted, or expanded upon with another 15+ minutes. It's as if the budget ran out and everyone just wrapped it up as fast as they could with no regard for a cohesive storyline. It's a shame, because it had potential. It's a generous 6/10 from me.

This movie started ok. Good acting, good plot, good decor, even the storyline was unusual and a great new idea for a ghost movie. However, I only have one thing to say about the ending...W...T...F...!!!. Maybe I missed something, but if that ending would have been different, I would have given 9/10. Too bad !!!