Director: Anthony Scott Burns
Year: 2018
Country: Canada/Germany/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Following the death of his parents, a teenage electrical wiz forced to care for his younger siblings decides to use a device he invented that was intended to bridge spiritual planes but finds that it's contacted malicious spirits and turns into a far greater danger to those around him.
Review:
For the most part, this wasn't all that bad of an effort. One of the more interesting aspects of this one is the manner in which it begins to generate the supernatural antics in the story. With the slow-burn effect really giving this one a bit of a lengthy visit to the ghost action, this one builds up the family drama and slowly infusing a logical gateway to allow the spirits to start interacting as his machine being at the center of it all which causes the first incidents. Once it starts getting brought into play more and turning into a solid basis for the first interactions, featuring the random music playing on the speakers that nobody's around to the objects levitating in mid-air that gives this some rather strong setup for the more intense actions later on.
Once it becomes obvious that something's in the house with them and that it might not be friendly, the film really kicks up with some more intense sequences. From the cloud of spores materializing around the daughter while she's in the bathtub to a stellar sequence of the ghostly figure appearing behind their visiting friend while in the shower which is a rather fun scare to be had here. With the ghostly figures being far more proactive in the finale as they actively target the family in some creepy moments including trapping them in furniture to physically appearing in front of them to generate some nice tense moments. Armed with a sold twist that does make for a fun, thrilling idea here and far more suspense than expected with how it plays out, these are enough to make it watchable over it's few flaws.
Among the main issues present is the fact that due to this one giving us quite a lengthy setup for the actual accident, it takes a long time before anything remotely creepy starts happening. By giving us such a strong starting point into his electrical and engineering prowess through the scenes of him in the competitions with his friends or going through all the pity his coworkers and associates give him due to the accident throughout the first half that it never gives the appearance of being such a film at all. This is almost a melancholy family drama about their attempts to move on from such an incident with a few minor incidental features about the strange device he's using as there really isn't a whole lot of such ghostly action at all throughout here.
Likewise, the other issue here is the rather tame and overall bland rating. The lighter tone here is obvious from the start and drives away a lot of perceived tension in the film it could've used to play up it's potential plotline, as the main focus isn't on the ghosts really causing that much mischief. By giving this such a lighter tone with no real violence and plenty of attention to the children characters, this one signals from the start that they can't keep them in danger or put too much stress on them so it really shies away from these even in the more horror-centered moments lack any kind of true intensity or threat towards anyone. However, this isn't as big of a flaw as the other real issue here.
Overview: ** 1/2/5
One of a long number of somewhat dull, not very thrilling drama-based horror efforts that are becoming increasingly in vogue, that alone should be the determining factor for this one. If that sounds interesting and appealing to you then this deserves a watch or rental at least, while those looking for something darker and more genuinely thrilling should avoid this at all costs.
This ran as part of our coverage of the 2018 Fantasia Festival series of review.
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