Death of a Ghost Hunter Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A skeptical ghost hunter is hired to investigate a house where brutal murders took place 20 years prior.

Review: I'm tired of saying it. You're tired of me writing it, but, yet again, so much wasted potential! This is becoming comical at this point, because it's almost as if filmmakers don't watch their own movies or lack the general understanding of how to make their film better. There were so many (like a shit load of) opportunities to make this movie not only good but outright scary. Just about every scene had a moment when they could have explored a creepy concept or made use of a setup that would have worked tremendously. I was honestly getting more scared of my vision of how this film could have been than the movie itself. Now while I may have a vivid imagination, I'd would have gladly contributed some tips to improve this bad boy into something respectable. Maybe I should work as some kind of consultant? While the potential to make a genuinely frightening film was there, I can't ignore that there were still so many bad elements hindering the chance to turn this into a decent flick.

Pretty much the moment the film begins, you will notice the shittier level of film quality, which I can mostly forgive, but fair warning. What I can't overlook so easily is the excruciatingly bad acting that plagues this film to no end. I know it can be hard to find quality actors on a low budget but come on; one of the actresses in particular is flat out unbearable. The only halfway decent actor is the main girl, Carter, and even then I think I just felt her narration of the film was what made her appear to have the slightest bit of conviction for her character. The effects are a range of acceptable to kind of good which at least showed they didn't skimp entirely where the film was meant to shine; still, it wouldn't have hurt to use some makeup effects to make the ghosts actually look scary. I also had a major gripe with the point of view/perspective and semi-documentary style presentation. Why show the movie as if it's a completed documentary when there is no cameraman filming? Then, why bounce back and fourth with a camera as if this whole movie is being filmed?! Plan this shit properly! Is this a documentary or is this a movie with narration? It's hard to explain this, but you'll notice the inconsistencies while viewing (if you chose to waste your time that is). As for the story, you'd think with a plot line as simplistic as this it would be more fleshed out, right? First, the main twist, if you will, was beyond predictable to the point of stupidity. So we see the initial murders that set the tone with the fate of a baby left undetermined. They idiotically chose to include the age of a "mysterious" character which pretty much tells us, hey, I'm the baby all grown up! Fuck. Don't even get me started on the asinine notion that the police believed the murders were not done by the mother! In fact, this plot aspect was so overlooked and nonsensical that even the film acts as if this revelation is unimportant since no one ever speculates about who the killer would have been. So you're telling me I can go on a rampage killing four people, and myself, leaving a shit ton of evidence in my wake, but because I write a note saying I don't know who did it, the police will believe me?! That's a good one, movie! And let's not forget this whole "Dexter" first cop on the scene adopt-a-baby routine. However, I did really love how the baby survived as it was clever--maybe too smart for this movie. Other details felt off like the whole deal with the guy hiring Carter was incomplete, the characters appear fake with no real background, and quite a few loose ends despite the ending's attempt to wrap things up in a nice, neat package. But more so, the ending was just plain stupid. The story should have been structured in such a way to reveal what really happened in the context of the film rather than an ambiguously possessed moron explaining everything after the film should have ended. Plus, what's with the tacked on scene of Carter dead? I was laughing at how contrived that scene was considering the fucking title itself already told us this would happen!

At this point I'd imagine you think this film must be pure shit, but hear me out for a second on why it's not pure garbage. The atmosphere would have been awesome had there been better cinematography. Too many brightly lit shots, bad angles, and a general amateurish feel to the look hurt badly to an otherwise solid setting. The house looks and feels foreboding with sheets blanketing the furniture, the picture frames turned backwards, and dim lamps seemingly the only source of light. I don't care if you used jump scares or not at this point because you can't let that kind of setup go to such a waste; absolutely none of this design plays a role or is incorporated in any shape or form to the story. You don't know how badly I wanted something to rise up from under the sheets, the sheets to move/disappear, to be in the outline of a person, or virtually any use plain and simple! Forget the subtle route of making these things background scares like having a sheet in the outline of a person, cut away, then normal...just give me anything! As for the portraits and such, I wanted them to either flip forward on their own or connect a plot twist to flipping the pictures forward and seeing something creepy. They kept zooming in on a photo of the mother that killed everyone so why not make the photo come to life or have someone/thing appear in the reflection of the photo...anything! The house was supposed to be dark, if not, pitch black, and yet it always appeared too bright. Tone it down! Have someone pop out from the shadows, have a shadow move in the background, have glowing eyes in the dark, have one of the child's toys emerge from the darkness, fuck, do something! Even at the end when the possessed idiot was lurking about, it was never scary or used properly. Damn it! Make the girl come from behind a door or under a bed if that's what it takes; you can't rip off this many movies and yet not mimic their scarier scenes! What few, barely scary, scenes they did include could have been phenomenal if done correctly with better direction; the ghost creeping out from behind the door wasn't even scary and that's as good as this film gets. Ugh, seriously, I could go on for hours about how everything could have been done differently, but, to this film's credit, at least I could feasibly do this; there are so many shitty movies out there that never have this kind of potential to blow.

Overall, this isn't a terrible movie, per se, but it's not good either. The acting sucks dick, the story is needlessly complicated when it's too dumb to be anything but straightforward, predictable, amateurish direction and presentation, and, most importantly, devoid of any scares. On the other hand, the setup and setting are good and even a little original, effects are decent, some good ideas, and a lot of potential. I don't know, supposedly the film was made in nine days so perhaps they tried to tackle more than they could handle? If this fact is true, I'll give them some credit for attempting such an undertaking, but this movie failed miserably as a result when it could have been a surprise hit in the vein of "Grave Encounters." I can't recommend this movie, but I would hope the creators learn from their mistakes and maintain the few things they did correctly. If for some reason you still feel inclined to give this one a shot, you better set your bar pretty low.

Notable Moment: Probably the scene featured on the cover with the little girl creeping out from a door. The funny thing is that they try and make it look much scarier than it really was in the movie.

Final Rating: 4/10