Pay the Ghost

Is Pay The Ghost a Cage classic like 8mm or Face/Off? Nowhere near it. Is it as bad as some people are making it out to be? No, and at least it's better than guff like Gone In 60 Seconds or Bringing Out The Dead. I mean what's better? A film that at least tries to put together some sort of a story (even if it is a bit lacking) or films that have none or are just earlier versions of Fast & The Furious? I know what I'd rather go with.

Pay The Ghost isn't that fantastic, and I'm not suggesting that it is, but for all the complaints it has received, it's altogether not THAT bad. I mean granted the story has been done a thousand times before and it's loaded with clichés (hard to find movies that don't have clichés to be honest), but this film never sets out to be a fantastic Oscar winning epic. It's a middle-of-the-road Horror film, and you get pretty much exactly what you pay for here. Nothing about the story kept me on the edge of my seat, but nothing about it wanted me to slit my wrists for something better to do either. There were a few decent moments scattered throughout, but it wasn't really all that scary.

Some people moan about him but for the most part I enjoy watching Nicolas Cage. Is he over-the-top in some films? Yes, but generally he's a pretty solid actor. You tend to kind of know what you'll get with Cage. His performance in Pay The Ghost isn't anything to write home about but I think with this type of film & story if he put any more into it, then it would have been too much. I don't generally mind Sarah Wayne Callies', but the characters she plays do tend to rub me the wrong way. Her character in The Walking Dead was like that and her character here did the same.

I'd say to give this film a shot if you like Nicolas Cage films or if there's nothing else better for you to watch, but other than that it's a bit of a watch it and forget it type of movie.

"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.

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.

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.

After about five minutes into the movie I thought, "Oh no, not another child that sees ghosts." Then, as though the writers heard my plea, the movie changed directions. Now, to be fair, it didn't go into unchartered territory. In fact, the movie revisited a well established premise.

Professor Mike Lawford (Nicholas Cage) loses his child at a Halloween fair right under his nose. This leads to a split between he and his wife, Kristen (Sarah Wayne Callies), as she blames him for their son's abduction. Shortly before Charlie's (Jack Fulton) abduction he had strange visions and even heard something tell him to "Pay the Ghost". All of that plays a major role in Mike's subsequent search for his son as it takes him to stranger and stranger locations.

I would call the movie eerie and ominous even but not quite scary. There is a particular frustration when a terrible thing happens to you in a desolate location because no one is around to help you. There is another, more intensified frustration when a terrible thing happens to you in New York City and there are literally thousands of people around you. That's precisely what Mike was dealing with. "Pay the Ghost" was entertaining and it held my interest but nothing groundbreaking.