Pay the Ghost (2015)

Story is holding up but it is a Halloween movie like there are Christmas movies. I liked the connection with the vilain past of english invasion. Nicolas was acting very well, looking properly ghastly when appropriate.

Overall this film is okay. Its defiantly not the best supernatural horror movie I've seen but it defiantly deserves a watch. The plot is not anything that hasn't been done before, Nick Cages plays a father of a boy that goes missing. After a year of searching and doing his own investigation he discovers that there is an supernatural force taking children. Him and his wife fight to discover what happen to their son and try to get back.As expected with this type of movie there are a few jump scares. They are a little hit and miss. Some got me, some were massively preemptive and you knew they were coming. Some of the "scare" scenes felt a little bit rushed, it would have been better if they had more time to build the suspense. I think that would have made this movie a little more spine tingling. The crying lady character is quite sinister, when she appears in a few of the jump scare scenes she looked pretty menacing. I cant say I really liked the vultures that randomly appear. I get they are meant to be a calling card/sign of the crying lady but they feel out of place. I particularly liked the scene when Cage finds the sea of missing children, that was quite chilling. The script was everything it needed to be, but again nothing special. It ticked all the right boxes for the type of film it is, it just felt like it was missing that extra bit of scare factor. Nick Cage does a good job, it almost feels like he could be at the start of getting back on track with this movie. Its not as great as the Nick Cage that was in Con Air or Gone in 60 seconds but it was defiantly a better performance that he has given in other films recently. The only thing I hate seeing is him running. He is not a runner. He looks awkward and uncomfortable and for some reason it irritates me. Sarah Callies plays the part of the grieving mother well. She supports Cages character nicely. I would have liked to see her be a little more involved in the story but she was good when she was on scene. Watch this film if you have an hour and half to spare and fancy watching a jump scare supernatural film. If you want to watch a great horror movie then this isn't for you, maybe watch something else.

Truth be told, then this 2015 movie starring Nicolas Cage can be summarized with one single word: mediocre.Well, let's just add a bit more of filling to the review anyway, shall we? First of all, I must honestly admit that I had no hopes for this movie, given it being a Nicolas Cage movie after all. I am not a fan of his or his one single expression; constipated. And truth to the tendency, then he doesn't really excel in "Pay the Ghost".The story did have potential, I will admit that much. It is about a vengeful spirit, or ghost if you will, that appear once a year at Halloween to snatch three living children from the world of the the living. But when the ghost takes Charlie (played by Jack Fulton), son of Mike (played by Nicolas Cage) and Kristen (played by Sarah Wayne Callies), a game of ethereal trailing and tracking is set afoot. Mike wants to find and return his son at all costs.Well, it had potential, but it was all drowned in a myriad of predictable situations and outcomes. As such, then director Uli Edel didn't impress much.The effects in the movie were good, and the design of the vengeful spirit was actually quite interesting.But the movie was just a shallow shell of a movie, honestly. It was too predictable to be wholly entertaining, and the few scares that were to be had in the movie was from some really cheap scare tactics; as in jump-out-at-your-face techniques go.And the final showdown between Mike and the spirit, which you saw coming a mile away was about as anti-climatic as it could be. A few measly moments of ethereal pommeling and then it was all over.The acting in "Pay the Ghost" was also mediocre. This was nowhere near being at the top of what Nicolas Cage is actually capable of doing, and Sarah Wayne Callies seemed to be like a drone caught out of the air.Don't get your hopes up for this one. And if you are looking for a scary movie that will have you wishing that you'd left the lights on, then "Pay the Ghost" is not the choice. I am rating it a very mediocre five out of ten stars.

I found this movie quite credible for the first forty minutes or so. A child goes missing in odd circumstances at hallowe'en; his parents split up (all too common when there are tragedies involving kids), and dad's desperate, fruitless attempts to find his son lead him to near collapse. Had the unfortunate child turned up (say) drowned in a ditch, and movie ended there, it wouldn't have been bad.It was when the supernatural elements started ramping up that it all went wrong. Why is it that film-makers think that, just because the supernatural is involved, they can put in any old rubbish instead of a plot? Even in a supernatural story, people still have to behave credibly like people. There still has to be narrative continuity.Why is it that film-makers think that, just because viewers are willing -- at least for a short time -- to accept that there are evil ghostly presences at work in the world, they will also be willing to accept that 2+2=5? The plot doesn't fail for lack of realism -- well, not entirely -- but for lack of logical, narrative consistency.Watch the first half, then make up your own ending. It can't fail to be better than the one we're given.