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Ghost ries
So I went along to the Odeon's Scream Unseen preview screening last night and correctly predicted it was to be 'Ghost Stories' (predictable as Odeon typically show a British film and there's few British horrors in the pipeline). This wasn't the disappointment though as I would have gone to see this anyway.
The disappointment was for a British made film to rely so heavily on the Hollywood horror playbook of loud noise jump scares and creepy girls with long hair. As this film is based on Andy Nyman's (who stars and directs) stage play, maybe the scares are more effective in that medium and the overall tone more creepy, but it didn't come across as anything special. I found myself pretty much counting down to when a scare or false scare would occur.
That said, there was a stellar cast involved with Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins, Dr Watson and Tim from the Office), Paul Whitehouse (The Fast Show) and especially up and comer Alex Lawther (The End of the F***ing World and he also appeared in a Black Mirror episode as a young man who is black mailed by webcam hackers into doing increasingly disturbing acts). I think this young actor stole the show. His small role got the best reactions from an "uninitiated" horror audience. His close up facial expressions oozed the fear his character was trying to hide but he also delivered perfect comic timing when appropriate.
We got an unexpected turn for the last act (would be interesting to see how this is done in the play) but didn't give us anything that hasn't been done before (not naming similar film's due to avoiding giving it away).
Not a bad film by any means, just highly forgettable I'm afraid.