The Ghostmaker

I'll first say that THE GHOSTMAKER isn't an original film at all. The premise seems to be a toss up between FLATLINERS and THE ASPHYX, with the narrative incorporating elements of FINAL DESTINATION and GHOST along the way. The special effects have clearly been inspired by those in THE FRIGHTENERS. Other than that, this is a surprisingly good little movie.

I wasn't expecting much from this, I admit, having had my fingers burnt too many times by the glut of boring, repetitive and clichéd teen horror films out there. Most of them involve a group of kids being bumped off by a maniac, but THE GHOSTMAKER actually has some intelligence behind it in the story of a trio of guys who find a clockwork coffin that has the power to temporarily transform them into ghosts.

The plotting isn't great, as things end up on a smaller scale basis than you'd expect, and there are some clichés here. But at the same time the character development is pretty intriguing, and the acting is acceptable for the genre. The special effects are actually pretty good given what must have been a tiny budget to work with. Not a film to blow you away but one well worth checking out for the horror fans among us.

After acquiring the coffin of a 15th-century mathematician who cheated death, a group of friends' slowly find the drawbacks to it's continued usage when they start crossing the line far more frequently and violently.

There's not a whole lot to this one that really works, and it tends to get off-track quite often. The biggest problem with this one is the fact that the whole film is dependent on the idea of using this strange device being something that's terrifying or creepy, but instead none of what goes on here is really all that creepy or scary. Being astral projected into the area and witnessing events as a spectral being is not in the slightest bit scary a concept, and these scenes doing this are some of the blandest, more arduous scenes in the film with absolutely nothing going on that's in any way interesting to watch. It's so difficult to get through these since none of them are played off with the intent of being creepy or scary, just more of a curiosity by the discoverers which is so far removed from the intent of a horror film that it ends up becoming quite painful to sit through these with almost nothing of any value going on here and being so long into the film that when it finally gets going it's almost the final act which is quite a bit of time to get things going. There's a big difference in the way the action of what goes on in these scenes being far more enjoyable and entertaining overall since something's actually going on for once, as the endless chasing being done trying to get back his girlfriend makes for some rather chilling moments with the house battle, making effective use of the poltergeist stage for a chilling moment before settling back into action with the encounter in the gym which works quite well in putting his ghostly state to full-effect while forcing his smarts to come into play in finally being able to confront the menace. While not the greatest ploy, the tactic of putting the ghostly guardian of the coffin along for the ride does make for a fine sense of chilling atmosphere by having something to be scared of during the more boring sequences and it gets a lot of play in the finale which helps that as well, and helps this out quite well even with the slew of problems on display within.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and drug use.

If cool ideas or concepts would be the only indicator or rating barometer, we would talking a whole different ball game right now. But we are not, because the execution of said idea should at least be good too. Talking about good and involving anything that is shown in this movie would be a travesty. I can't judge the actors by one performance (or rather I don't want to), but they're not really helping the case delivered with this movie.

Don't get me wrong, the whole thing is half hearted at best. The script seems to be incomplete, the characters are shallow at best and the twists are funny, if you're good humored. The effects could be called OK I guess, but only by very low budget standards. In other words: You can smell the CG miles before it hits the screen. If you can't watch things like that, don't even bother. A shame, because it did sound interesting ... which brings us back to square one!

This movie had a very original concept that could have taken it way farther. The problem begins with the film's low budget. 1 million (USD)is really not much now days for a movie. Even with it's limited budget production still looked professional. The actors are no names in my book but did fairly well given this. Instead of making a long drawn out review I will say it's worth a look (especially compared to other Horror releases), and I would say that it deserves higher than its current 4.4 score. Special effects were alright but story-line becomes a bit cheesy as it progresses when it starts off with such a COOL concept and history. I would say it's worth a look for sci-fi/horror buffs!

I've been waiting for years to get my hands on a copy of this movie. And I was pleased to finally see it. I was worried when it spent so many years being delayed which raised some concerns. But it's a decent horror flick. The acting, film and effects are good and are on par with any well made modern flick. On a 1-10, I'd give it a 7 (I think more could have been done with the story or plot) but and 8 for subject matter and originality. The movie reminds me of the Guillermo del Toro movie Cronos. The ancient mechanical horror theme is very similar. The protangonists too are very flawed and the box brings their own demons to the surface. It doesn't scare me or really creep me out but it was entertaining and wasn't predictable.

I've seen tons of bad horror movies. I'll probably watch this movie aqain down the road at some point. I can't say that for many. I even purchased a copy of it.