Ghostkeeper

On a wintery New Year's Eve two women(Jenny and Chrissy)and one man(Marty)embark on a short snowmobile excursion.When the snowmobile breaks down,they are forced to seek refuge in a deserted hotel.There they confront powerful evil forces."Ghostkeeper" is a pretty creepy and atmospheric horror film which will keep you guessing until the end.The acting is solid and the atmosphere of fear and total isolation is well-captured.The locations sets(snowy mountains and a mansion in the middle of nowhere)provide some chills.Check it out if you are a horror fan.8 out of 10.

Poorly distributed during a period when the horror-film market was predominantly angled toward the slasher element, this low-key B effort is actually not bad at all, and should probably be reevaluated by genre fans.

A trio of young snowmobilers face mechanical problems deep in the forest, and chance upon upon a neglected and very isolated hunting lodge. Initially they believe the place to be abandoned, but latterly find it inhabited by a strange old lady and her son...as well as their "pet" Wendigo(a spirit of Native American lore, ever hungry for human flesh).

While there's not a lot of meat on the bones of this story, the subtle atmosphere of eerie desolation makes up heartily for that fact. And while the production values might be a peck below the par, GHOSTKEEPER maintains the methodical, slow and steady momentum of a dying heartbeat, a quality further punctuated by its lonely and foreboding deep-forest setting, wraithlike in its icy-white veil of winter snow. All in all, a forgivably flawed slow-burner which probably won't appeal to gorehounds or fast-action thrill seekers, but it should satisfy a low-pressure, caffeine-free type of viewership.

5.5/10

A slow-burn (or should I say slow-freeze) chiller set deep in the snowy mountains of Canada, GHOSTKEEPER is effective at creating an atmosphere and not very effective at doing anything with it.

Three friends snowmobiling around the middle of nowhere for New Year's Eve soon find themselves stranded at a strange hotel, abandoned except for a mysterious old woman who seems to be keeping something from them. It sounds like a solid set-up for a generic '80s slasher, and I've seen the film often categorized as such, but I'd hesitate to call it one.

It's certainly not a "teens in the woods get picked off one by one by a madman" movie. It's instead a "slow descent into madness" type of movie; imagine if THE SHINING had a no-name Canadian cast and wasn't really very good.

That being said, icicles of atmosphere hang all over this thing. I always felt Paul Zaza to be an underrated player in the composer game, and his score here is wonderful. Understated and mysterious, GHOSTKEEPER would be practically nothing without it. It's also decently well-shot and the locations are beautiful.

A solid build-up unfortunately melts away in the second half. Characters who acted very similarly the entire film suddenly act completely different. Other characters show up randomly just to be immediately slaughtered. Everything feels very scattershot and aimless.

I feel like the film is very close to becoming a spot-on representation of a certain kind of Wendigo myth: a Wendigo that does not hunt as a beast, but instead rattles the aching, snow-addled minds around it into a cabin fever psychosis. Unfortunately, GHOSTKEEPER just doesn't quite get it right. Worth a look for fans of atmospheric horror, but by no means a must-see.

Ghostkeeper is not as good as others would have you believe. It does have a beautiful and creepy setting, and the film itself is rather creepy, but in a rather fake way. This is achieved mainly through the use of music, and whilst this is effective for the first 30 minutes or so, you get a bit sick of hearing the same music over and over.

I think this film could have been a whole lot better. You can see the potential whilst watching it, and within the first 30 minutes I had figured out several ways it could have been better. The plot is where everything falls apart. It's really about nothing much at all. The ending is a bit of a surprise, but is so shallow that you think "jeez, that's what this film has been building up to?" Despite the excellent setting, I can't really recommend Ghostkeeper. It's like a very poor mans version of The Shining. If slow pace, creepy atmosphere yet lack of plot is your thing, you may enjoy this, but otherwise I would skip it.

Ghostkeeper (1981)

** (out of 4)

Jenny (Riva Spier), Marty (Murray Ord) and Chrissy (Sheri McFadden) are out snowmobiling when they come across an old lodge. The three end up staying the night there when they encounter a strange old woman but they have no idea of knowing that there's much worse there.

GHOSTKEEPER is a Canadian horror film that I've been wanting to see for many years and especially since there were some really glowing reviews out there. Some people called this one of the creepiest movies ever made but after viewing it I'm going to guess that those who said that probably saw this as a child. With that being said, GHOSTKEEPER turned out to be one of the bigger disappointments out there.

It's really too bad that the film didn't work better because the setting and location were wonderful. I really loved the snowy look to the film and I thought that director Jim Makichuk was able to milk some atmosphere out of the low budget. However, all of that is pretty much wasted because there's really not too much going on here. Apparently the production ran out of money so the script was scrapped and they just went along with whatever felt right.

That explains why there's really not too much of a plot here but what really kills the film is its ultra-slow style that really makes the film drag at times. I did find the three leads to be good enough in their roles and the supporting players were good as well. The film at least had an atmosphere but at the end of the day it's clear that the director was wanting to try and cash-in on THE SHINING but it just didn't work.