Pay the Ghost

"What if all these children, missing on Halloween, in New York City are connected. What if there's something behind it?" What starts off as a fun trip with his kid to a Halloween carnival becomes a nightmare when the child goes missing. Now Mike (Cage) will stop at nothing to find him. When the one year anniversary comes and still no sign of his son he starts to experience strange things. He hopes these clues will help him, but the more he looks the more eerie things become. There seems to be some actors that seem to be in everything you see. Nicolas Cage is one of those actors. There is a new movie with him coming out constantly, and for people like me who don't like him it seems that it happens more than it should. His last movie, The Runner, wasn't bad and I did like it. Much like that movie this is actually a pretty interesting movie that was fun to watch and did have a little Poltergeist feel to it. As far as Cage goes, much like in The Runner he didn't do anything to distract from the movie and it was good in spite of him. Overall, one of the better horror as well as Cage movies in a while. I surprisingly liked this. I give it a B.

Having enjoyed 'vintage Cage' in The Rock, Con Air, Face-Off, Captain Correli etc, frankly, I was hoping for a comeback, but, I didn't find it. Scripting at times is woefully simple, used to stitch the scenes, 'we need to discover xyz', 'how will we do that' and into the next scene! It feels predictable, it doesn't go deep, on the plus side, there were a couple of goose-bump scares, so I was submerged well enough at points and certainly the pace picks up during the final third. If there was a blackout power cut during the film, I wouldn't even consider to go back to finish it, it is not a good film, but, its not a bad one. Sunday evening B grade fodder.

With its low rating on IMDb and some poor reviews I read, I wasn't expecting much from this ghost/horror flick. However, I found it to be better than I anticipated. It's presented well, and although it probably won't please the die-hard horror fans, it had just enough chills and surprises for me.

Nicolas Cage stars as Professor Mike Lawford, who takes his 7-year-old son Charlie (Jack Fulton), on Halloween night, to a local carnival in New York City. However, while buying some ice cream, Charlie goes missing, and Mike frantically tries to find him to no avail.

Fast forward one year, and Mike has found his marriage, his career, and his own psyche in a tailspin, with no definitive word on Charlie. Mike, though, gets the sense that his son is trying somehow to communicate with him, while his wife Kristen (Sarah Wayne Callies) begins to get the same type of messages from the spirit realm.

With help from a fellow professor (Veronica Ferres) and an Irish celebrant at a traditional Celtic Halloween service, Mike and Kristen begin to finally realize what might have happened to Charlie and what they can do about it.

All in all, this movie directed by Uli Edel and written by Dan Kay, based on a novella by Tim Lebbon, is not going to win any awards for plot originality, as this theme has been used numerous times in other movies. However, it kept me engaged and offered up just enough chills for me to like it.

A lot of reviews are giving this movie flack but it's not that bad. I feel like people go into Cage movies now expecting the worse and have already decided how to feel about it before they've even watched it. I'm not about to argue that this film is good (because it definitely isn't) but you could do far worse than watch this movie. Sure, the CGI is terrible and the plot is no good. But we have okay dialogue in the script and everyone in the movie (minus the child actor) does a fine job. Cage isn't hamming it up like he often does and Sarah Wayne Callies does a great job. The scene after they lose their son is rather heartbreaking when you look at her. This movie does fall apart a bit down the stretch, however.

All in all, it's very forgettable, not recommended, but not terrible either.

I'm completely aware of all the hate Nicholas Cage gets (which I disagree with), however I actually consider him a good actor that commonly falls into the wrong hands. In this little horror film, Nicholas Cage actually gives an acceptable performance as the main role with good, sentimental angry outbursts of rage. It's nothing special, but I enjoyed this film because of it's imaginative, dark cinematography and quietly creepy atmosphere. It's got good jumpscares, surprisingly eye-capturing visual effects and an alright storyline to keep it going, and as long as you expect little from this film you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. I have to remark, this is actually one of Nicholas Cage's better films after all the crap he's acted in previously, and it's good that he's still acting in some films worthy of your time.