Director: Eric Bress
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Trying to carry out their mission, a squadron of US soldiers in WWII France relieve another squad of their duty at a fortified castle behind enemy lines and stay there to defend it, but the longer they stay there the more they come to believe someone or something is living in the castle that doesn’t want them there.
Review:
This was a pretty decent and enjoyable entry. Among its rather impressive elements is the wholly dynamic manner of mixing together its war-movie origins with the ghost movie aesthetic that’s slowly introduced to the proceedings. The initial scenes of the group making their way through the frontlines trying to survive, not just with the advancement tactics and fighting with the Nazis that provide this with some decent enough action before getting to the fantastic set up in the castle where the Nazis storm the building after being inadvertently tipped off by the ghosts and lead to a solid firefight throughout the area which is quite fun and frantic. It's a solid, engaging and brutal gunfight that manages to signal the switchover into horror with the ghosts getting involved as much as the soldiers to take out the invading Nazis, making for a fun spurt of action thrown into the mix.
Once they arrive at the castle, this one nicely shifts into a wholly creepy slow-burn style entry that becomes increasingly more chilling as time goes on. Going off the reaction of the first squadron and their hurry to leave, the idea of this being haunted becomes a bit more obvious once time goes on as the various banging noises and banging that signals the start of something eerie happening in the building. The later scenes of the ghosts going with a more active sense of invading their personal space to be aware of their presence after dealing with the Nazis invading the castle serve this one incredibly well by generating a highly impressive atmosphere based around the suddenness of the figures appearing out of nowhere to deliver a brutal and somewhat shocking sequence that gets far more intense as time in the castle goes on which is rather fun. These manage to be the film’s best elements.
There isn’t much to dislike with this one at all. Among its main flaws is a decidedly confusing series of timeframe shifts that occur throughout here where it’s hard to tell what time-period everything is happening. The idea of doing the ghosts from the massacred civilians of the Nazis’ original ownership of the castle before the final reveal of the timeline shift for each of the various switches gives everything a truly confusing and disjointed narrative where very little makes sense about the involvement of the ghosts and their purpose. That becomes all the more obvious when it deals with the actual ending where it generates a far more unrealistic and over-the-top twist in what’s going on that it just doesn’t feel cohesive to what’s going on as if it was just inserted as a twist to be original. Otherwise, there’s just not that much wrong here.
Overview: ***.5/5
Managing to get a lot of enjoyable elements together with a great location and chilling ghost action, the few flaws featured here aren’t that detrimental and don’t hold it back that much. Give it a look if you’re intrigued by the setup, appreciate the war/horror genre or a general fan of ghost films while those who aren’t into those aspects or potentially turned off by the problems should heed caution.
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