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A cut above the usual skeptic vs supernatural movie, necessarily episodic, with a good vein of comedy and a strong sense of dread. Like the rest of its little genre, it has interesting things to say about the social role of the paranormal, but it comes alive when it turns its attention to its protagonist.

As an avid horror fan, I found this movie to be boring, extremely dull and not effective, at all, in terms of being scary. It was, honestly, difficult to endure it till the end.

I was really hopeful for 'Ghost Stories.' For some reason, it seemed to have a lot of publicity here in the UK for a 'home grown' spooky tale, plus it had Martin Freeman in, fresh off the back of his turn in 'Black Panther.' It opens well, with a kind of 'found footage' approach to it, by interviewing our protagonist (Andy Nyman) as he's a 'professional debunker' who goes around Britain 'exposing' supernatural tales for something mundane and ordinary. However, this style of film-making is quickly dropped in terms of a more 'conventional' form of story-telling and that's a shame because - for once - the 'found footage' element appears to be the best bit! I haven't really seen our protagonist, Nyman, in much else (or rather noticed him in anything I have seen!) and I got the feeling from the beginning that he just didn't really have the screen presence to carry a full-length feature film on his own, even one with a low budget and non-mainstream appeal. He just didn't look comfortable in the role. Once the 'found footage' segment ends, Nyman receives a message from the paranormal investigator who inspired him. Now retired, this old Scottish man hands him three case studies that he was never able to disprove during his active work-life. Therefore, the movie is basically an anthology of three different ghost stories, told by three different characters (Freeman is last, so you're going to have to wait for him to show up!). The next problem I had with the story is that all the actors seemed to be putting on (forced) regional accents for their characters. Plus a couple of the characters looked like they were wearing prosthetic make-up to alter their appearance. The fake make-up, combined with an over-the-top accent, made the film appear like an episode of 'Little Britain,' only without the laughs. Any tension from the three main stories is taken right out of the equation as, because the stories are being told by the person in them, we - the audience - know full well that they are going to survive their ghostly encounter! However, perhaps the worst part of it all, was the 'rise and repeat' factor regarding the 'jump scares.' What happens is that, in every 'scary' scene you get about 10-20 seconds of silence while the character creeps through a dark and deserted place, followed by a screeching noise accompanying something on-screen that moves suddenly. This happens again and again, until you can almost count to thirty and then get what you're waiting for. I always try to stay positive when it comes to British (and foreign) films which can't compete with the Hollywood budgets, but I couldn't get behind this one as it was just badly acted, predicable and even laughable in some places (for all the wrong reasons).

It's really hard to understand how this ended up getting made. It's three clichéd and unsatisfying stories wrapped up in another clichéd and unsatisfying story. There are a few nice moments, but what a mess of a film.

Written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, Ghost Stories focuses on a certain Professor Goodman (portrayed by Andy Nyman himself), a man who has found some level of career fame in exposing and debunking the work of fraudulent so-called psychics. The arrival of a mysterious package one day from a famous TV psychic investigator from Goodman's own childhood era, Charles Cameron (Leonard Byrne) - a man thought to be long dead and whose own disappearance years before had been shrouded in mystery - soon changes the course of Goodman's future work, dramatically. It transpires that there are three ghostly mysteries that Cameron himself had wrestled with throughout his life, yet they remain unresolved to this day. It is Cameron's wish, in his old age, that Goodman should now investigate them and bring some much needed resolution to proceedings. Armed with each of the case files, Goodman sets about tracking down the three key proponents, upon whose testimony these apparent other-worldly happenings are based. Though somewhat shaken by his findings, Goodman's own innate scepticism leads him to believe that each of these cases can easily be explained away through the simple application of science and logic. But sometimes it's the psychological uncertainties of our own minds that can provide the biggest clues when we seek to make sense of the seemingly inexplicable. Dyson and Nyman's Ghost Stories works effectively for much of its duration as an apparently straight forward, slightly hammed-up spook-fest, though there is little by way of conclusions that can be garnered on face value from any of the three tales. But alarm bells should begin to ring for the viewer when one considers that the first two tales are told from the perspective of a couple of characters who, despite ultimately finding themselves cornered by forces of evil and in apparently terminally hopeless predicaments, both still somehow manage to live to tell the tale. And it's only once the third tale reaches it's climactic 'conclusion' that events really start to take a peculiar twist, and Ghost Stories slips into an even more intriguing dimension altogether; one whose narrative slips and slides between apparently random events of varied illogic, yet one which ultimately helps to tie the film's pieces neatly and cleverly together. There are a few passing parallels with landmark horror films of yesteryear. Elements of Poltergeist and The Blair Witch Project are apparent in places, but curiously it's a sort of tongue-in-cheek, 'hammer house' atmosphere that is most prevalent here. And although admittedly bearing little resemblance, content-wise, Roy Ward Baker's 1981 ghoulish and very British, twist-in-the-tale offering, The Monster Club, with its own lightly comical regaling of three haunting tales - is for me, somehow the film that I am most reminded of. Certainly, within their own film, Dyson and Nyman are unafraid to administer generous doses of gallows humour in just the right places, and the casting of two chiefly comic actors in Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse - both of whom are excellent here - in two of the film's key roles, certainly helps with regard to this, whilst Nyman's own rather more straight portrayal of a man with an emotionally-scarred past, is equally impressive. Whether it's to be considered a mysterious cognitive thriller or simply a ghostly shocker, either way, Ghost Stories is highly effective, lingering on in the memory the way all good cerebrally-challenging psychological horrors should. For all of my reviews, visit my: WaywardWolfBlog Wordpress site.

Ghost Stories is kinda of a horror anthology, but not really. It's a British horror anyway starring Martin Freeman and oddly Paul Whitehouse. It tells the story of a skeptic, a professional debunker and I think they're always fantastic protagonists because I can entirely relate to their plight and mission. He's tasked with investigating three supernatural incidents and off he goes to find the truth. Truth be told I was really enjoying it, it was so well handled. Genuinely tense, succeeds in being scary without relying on jump scares and the cast are fantastic. I was gripped, I was enthralled, I was hooked. Martin Freeman is on form and Paul Whitehouse in such a role though weird actually showed he may be a more credible actor than originally believed. He broke free of the comedy characters he's known for a did a great job. So what went wrong? Sadly for me it's one of those films killed by the ending, it just didn't work for me. I get it, I fully understand everything they were going for but personally that flat lined the entire film. Such potential, so well done, but that ending just bundled the thing into a coffin and sent it to a premature grave. Such a shame. The Good: The majority is fantastic on every front Lot of potential The Bad: Movie killing ending Things I Learnt From This Movie: Phone signal is something that you just swipe out of the air 02 product placement? Worst ever Professors are known for pulling onions out of their bottoms

REVIEW - GHOST STORIES A few months ago what was advertised as the scariest British horror was released in the cinemas with posters, TV ads ETC promoting the British horror flick. I watched the cinema listings with the intention of going to see it. I kept watching the cinema listings still with the intention of seeing it. I checked Odeon, Cineworld, Reel ETC to see when the best British horror film would be shown.......... and it wasn't. OK that's my moan out of the way. When I saw this available I pressed the button expecting to be scared out of my pants! Got to say here and now, not a good film, boring even in places and definitely not the scariest thing I've see. Paul Whitehouse shone in his section of the film but towards the end just gets lost (as we have also seen with other films) as if, ok let's start finishing, we have either run out of money or the film is long enough as it is already. Not scary, ending is just silly, no explanation as to who Martin Freeman is and the effects are frankly very (British reference coming up) 'Double Sided Sticky Tape'. Ok if its n TV and you have nothing else to do then it will waste (with a capital W) 90 minutes but honestly (another British reference coming up) 'Go out and do something else less boring instead'. Rating 4 out of 10

Clever, but not overly clever. Not so clever that you want to punch the writer(s) in the face. I was very surprised and satisfied with the ending of the film, and thoroughly enjoyed the path the storytellers took the viewers on to reach the conclusion. I watched it multiple times after renting in order to locate the delicious little hints that pointed to what was actually going on in the film. My first viewing was obviously the most satisfying: sitting alone in my lil' house in the woods, late at night, with all the lights off. The silence and darkness of my surroundings definitely added to the overall experience. I also really enjoyed the subsequent viewings, which helped me understand reasons behind certain shots, bits of dialogue, etc. And it was still scary the second and third times around! I thought each paranormal case presented in the film was uniquely frightening. The filmmakers made effective use out of many different types of scares. It isn't overly gory, which I appreciate because I am not really into blood and guts. There was a lot of suspense and eerie sounds, which I love. And some spooky critters, which I also love. The lighting (or darkness, I guess) in the first scenario was really unsettling. And then...the soul horror. Lawd have mercy. Thought Martin Freeman stole the show, but then he usually does. Really enjoyed the 3 or so minutes with Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as the priest. His dialogue was beautifully written and performed. Alex Lawther is always creepy. He could do a sweet-as-sugar romcom with Emma Watson and he would still freak me out. Love the cover art/film poster/whatever you call it as well. All in all, I found it really enjoyable. Classically spooky with modern twists. Good times.