Ghosts of War

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.

If you like war horrors such as The Objective, Trench 11, or The Bunker you will be OK with this. Its competently acted. Actually Kyle Gallner the lead from the mini-series "Interrogation" has a major supporting role in this movie. He is a good fit as the enigmatic squad sniper and its worth watching just for him. The horror effects seem a little cheesed but there is a reason for that. The movie has a decent twist to the plot, and for that reason I urge you to stop reading the reviews and watch the movie, as people are saying too much around here.

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.

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.

I really don't know what people think they're entitled to see every time they choose a movie. Whoever was responsible for this movie gave it their best shot. Great care was clearly taken in the photography and set design. A story that's a little different with actors who give it their all. Give it a break.