Urban Ghost Story

Well the name of the film and the description on the back of the DVD, and even the tag line would have you believe this is a ghost story.

In fact what you have here is a story of a 12 year old girl in a high rise block in Glasgow who suffered a car crash where she died but was revived.

What follows seems to be more focused on her life and her mothers struggle to raise her kids in the poverty stricken area, and the ghostly elements play a very small part and the film never really takes it any further than you are expecting.

OK watch this film if you'd like to see a film about the above mentioned but not if you want a ghost story urban or not.

After a car accident, Lizzie lies dead on the roadside - slowly she is taken into the light - but is pulled back to earth when she is revived by the doctors.

It's a descent ghost story, nothing special. Good acting though.

Well, this is a shame. After all the good review I had heard/ read about this film, I managed to rent it out on video, and was left feeling very let down.

The initial concept appealed to me anyway, so without the knowledge of the strong reviews I would have eventually watched this film.

The story? A young girl dies for approx 3 minutes in a car crash with her best male friend. He dies, but she lives. She is brought back from death with an evil spirit and survivor's guilt. Set in Scotland, I saw this as a nice departure from the over-glamourised Hollywood supernatural movies.

The first 15/20 minutes are used to create an unsettling atmosphere, and I did jump a few times. From then on, it's all downhill.

We are treated to many, many flashbacks that deal with the actual car crash, and these do get tiresome after a while. Jason Connery, not a patch on his Dad, is very annoying and I did feel the need to switch off when he came close to being on screen.

If the film does have a good point, it's in the performance of Heather Ann Foster who plays the enigmatic and traumatised Lizzie. She IS the film, and she seems to carry this burden very well, for a girl of such a young age, she seemed very confident.

Of course, people will try and compare this film to "Poltergeist", which, in plain English Should not be done - they are both totally separate films!!!

This film wanted, and could have been so much more than it is. It is a shame that I didn't enjoy it, but I hope someone out there does.

I just didn't connect to this film at all

A half way decent mix of supernatural goings on and a close examination of a family torn apart by a tragic accident. Like the spirit, this film doesn't know where it is. It's basically lost.

5/10

When urban ghost story is mentioned stuff like Candyman etc. spring to mind so I was perplexed when I saw this little gem from Scotland recently.

The content and atmosphere of the film does not adhere to the title whatsoever. You would be expecting Snoop Dog and Dr Dre driving around in cadillacs killing vampires. But no, instead a gritty Ken Loach style drama set in lovely Glasgow! I was very impressed overall by this effort, although the spiritualist and paranormal team from the university seemed a bit over the top with the more realistic view elsewhere. Otherwise it was neatly paced with a few creepy moments and a very moving score. I would recommend this film to any film watcher and not just paranormal junkies!

This film manages to hold the attention well and is genuinely disturbing and frightening at times as well. Good performances from the cast and good direction. Obviously, the budget was pretty low but they make good use of it. One of the well-performed medium-sized roles is played by an actress who ended up doing truly astonishingly great work in The Office as an irritating and self-obsessed co-worker of Tim's. Great to see actors careers progressing especially when so well-deserved. Perhaps Urban Ghost Story did suffer slightly from a somewhat bland title. Jason Connery inhabits the role well. It did achieve a theatrical release in the UK though not of immense proportions.