Plot Summary: A film studio, about to be sold, awakens the wrath of a deadly ghost.
Review: I have been waiting a few years for this movie to finally get a DVD release, and that time has come at last. It's hard not to be excited when you have my darling Danielle Harris, the voluptuous and underutilized Lacey Chabert, and Billy Zane all together. I don't know what I was actually expecting from this movie though. I imagined, from the trailer, that the story would be a film within a film sort of setup, but that's not what this turned out to be; that was probably a missed opportunity. The other aspect I was not expecting was that this would be a comedy horror; albeit, light on the comedy. None of this really changes much, but I guess I had a completely different idea of the direction this film was going toward. So was it worth the wait? Ehh, yes and no. It's over the top, corny as hell, and no one seems to be taking their roles seriously, but, on the other hand, the comedic moments worked better than I thought, there is a plethora of beautiful girls, and the ghost was kind of creepy.
The film takes place at, what's supposed to be, a film studio, but it was once just a regular house; they say they're an indie studio so I can cut them some slack in this respect. The studio has had bouts of mild hauntings from the ghost, but, with news that they're selling the place to be turned into a restaurant, the ghost becomes angered and violent. Umm, let's just say the ghost's motives are questionable, and we'll leave it at that. The story regarding the ghost is probably the least thought out plot element, but I think that was only half the goal of the movie anyway. To sum it up, back in the '60s, there was some hippie girl who ran off and found herself impregnated by--ready for this--Charles Manson! Don't worry though, they make fun of this in the movie and find it as hard to believe as any audience would. The hippie girl seemingly gave birth to an evil daughter that allegedly made the hippie mom kill herself. Then one day the evil daughter killed her stepfather in a bloody attack...leading the grandmother to drown the girl in the bathtub and magically the cops didn't care. Even though the house was then haunted by the evil daughter, and the grandmother knew this, she sold the house as it currently found itself under the management of the film studio. The ghost herself looks decent, in a Kayako-esque way, as she lurks about, although, she keeps doing this chomping shit at the screen. What, you think you're Iceman from "Top Gun" or something? The deaths and gore are good, but they could have been better. I especially liked that the ghost possesses Ms. Harris and works through her; there was a great fight between her and Ms. Chabert as well. The film's ending leaves much to be desired, however, with the ghost simply told she can keep the house and they cut to four years later with the ghost semi-possessing a real estate lady trying to sell the house. Uhh...okay.
Although the ghost is the driving force of the movie, the vast majority of the scenes focus on the studio's staff and they're an interesting bunch. There are surprisingly a lot of funny gags and jokes heavily strewn about, but something is a amiss in the presentation. It's hard to place my finger on the issue, but I can say for certain that the music is bad and the timing cues are way off which may be a contributing factor. It's tough to judge what people will find humorous, but this film's approach won me over in the long run after a shaky start. I feel like Mr. Zane didn't even have a script and they let him improvise all his lines. He is funny though with a subtle performance and a "what am I doing here" kind of attitude; I would say he gets all the best lines in the film too. The style to the comedy is nuanced, without being blatantly obvious that they want you to laugh, which can work against the film but helps it more in my opinion. I really liked that after one of the editing guys gets killed they try to continue his work but realize he spent most of his time looking at a porn website called "Sexy Asian Girls." Oh, Dean and I are extremely proud! Speaking of sexy girls, almost every chick you see, including background extras, are smoking hot. I have to give extra points for this aspect, and of course I can't neglect the sheer awesomeness of having Ms. Harris and Ms. Chabert together. My only gripe is they don't fully capitalize on the ladies when they could have pandered hardcore to fans.
Overall, this is an undeniably cheesy horror film packed with ridiculous moments and over the top reactions from the characters. The story can feel jumbled, pointless, and nonsensical with sloppy editing and an ill timed musical score. The acting feels wooden with terrible delivery from most of the cast that occasionally hurts the jokes. But, despite these numerous flaws, I can't deny how entertaining the movie really is. There was a certain charm and sense they were having fun making this. I laughed a lot at the jokes and setups, the sexy babes enhance every scene, and the story amused me profusely. I definitely feel as though the positives outweigh the negatives to at least allow this to be rental material. But if you're a fan of the actors involved, and have been waiting too, this shouldn't disappoint.
Notable Moment: I'll let the photo speak for itself...
Final Rating: 6/10
Ms. Harris and her busty friend, Christine Bently:
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