Ghost (2023) by Dillon Brown

Director: Dillon Brown

Year: 2023

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Trying to fight for the Church, the leader of a Church-organized task force intended to stop demonic activity from spreading is forced to look into a cult that’s intended to weaponize demons to unleash Armageddon bringing them together to stop it from happening.

Review:

For the most part, there’s quite a lot to like here. One of the film’s better aspects is the rather fun and detailed setup at play that gives this a lot to like. Initially providing vital clues about the connection to the other film as a fine starting point by getting to know who he is, the way it expands on that brief bit to encapsulate the use of a Holy task force for the Church to fight off against demonic plagues and forces is quite fun. This amount of fine detail is woven into the main story here where he and his partner are sent in search of the cult that’s looking to start Armageddon by forcing demonic beings into unwitting hosts and sending them out into the world. This is detailed and builds throughout the first half quite well.

That allows the film to become quite eerie and chilling once it gets to the cult activities. The beginning stages here featuring the recovered tapes from inside the cult showing one of their possession rituals on a victim or showing what happens when they catch a member trying to sneak away, comes off nicely building off the setup established earlier. The later scenes where their mercenary skills are put to the test tracking the leader down and dealing with the shootouts including his team and the rest of the cultists in some really exciting encounters. The found-footage aspect to this one gets the action up-close and personal so the tight spaces and confrontations have more impact being right in their headspace for everything and leaves this quite a lot to like.

There isn’t a lot really wrong here as the issues aren’t all that detrimental. The main point of this one is the cult’s leader who suffers from a lot of the drawbacks these films are plagued with as he’s far from the kind of charismatic leader needed to pull this off. His ranting and raving is not the type of persona to lead others the way he does, and the lack of context involving what his overall purpose is means the final confrontation has very few stakes or emotional impact when it occurs. There’s a confusing nature to what the purpose of the creature coming to life and going on the mission as there’s little about this which makes sense, making it slightly disappointing. Combined with the somewhat low budget on display, these are the few minor issues here.

Overview: ****.5/5

A fantastic found-footage genre effort, there’s a lot to like here and only a few minor flaws that manage to hold it down. Those who enjoy this kind of genre effort, are big found-footage fanatics, or are fans of the creative crew will get the most out of this one while most others who don’t appreciate these factors should heed caution.