Day 24, and what trek through horror films would be without people doing something stupid to incur the wrath of a vengeful spirit? With that in mind, our feature today is the 2017 ghost possession tale Ghost House. A young couple, Jim (James Landry Hebert) and Julie (Scout Taylor-Compton), take a trip to Thailand. There they are driven around by Gogo (Michael S. New) and meet two guys, Robert (Russell Geoffrey Banks) and Billy (Richard Gray), who show them one of the local “ghost houses” out in the woods. Trouble for the couple is that the pair have played a trick on them, leading Julie to unwittingly incur the wrath of a vengeful spirit. Jim now has to try and save her soul before it is lost. 6/10 stars
Good horror films, even when formulaic, try to give us characters we can at least sympathize with, or even like. Rooting for characters to survive makes the difference between a good movie and one that just gets by on gruesome effects. Sadly for Ghost House, the two main characters of Jim and Julie aren’t really likeable. Both do stupid things that get them in the supernatural mess they find themselves in, and it was hard to care whether they lived or died. Director Rich Ragsdale, who has primarily made a bunch of short videos, helms things competently enough, and the film at least has some nice effects. The cast is also competent, but they can only do so much with the formulaic script. There are quite a few cheap jump scares, including a final gotcha, but other than the exotic locale of Thailand, the film does nothing much to set itself apart from similarly themed flicks. Not the worst film out there, but there are better to spend your time with. Now showing on Netflix and available on Blu-ray/DVD.
