Customer Reviews

Death Of A Ghost Hunter

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Creepy as hell. Those are the "three little words" that every horror film aspires to achieve. Very few succeed - especially in this horror fanatic's opinion - but Death of a Ghost Hunter earns this proclamation from my lips (and fingers). It isn't a perfect film by any means, and some of my fellow horror enthusiasts have criticized it rather heavily, but this is the creepiest film I've seen since [Rec]. Not surprisingly, Death of a Ghost Hunter is a low-budget labor of love - I shudder to think just how badly Hollywood would have ruined it. I actually see some of the movie's weaknesses, as pointed out by others, as strengths. For instance, critics love to point out that the film was shot in a mere nine days, as if the secret of cinematic success is to spend a hundred million dollars over the course of nine months while pampering "stars" who might deign to come out of their trailers once or twice a day to actually shoot something. Death of a Ghost Hunter is all about atmosphere, and I have to believe that such a tight shooting schedule helped cast and crew remain focused at all times on the task at hand and helped maintain that all-important atmosphere throughout. This is a tight film - in terms of the production as well as the story itself - and I see that as a good thing. Sure, the acting isn't top-notch in every scene, some of the dialogue could have benefited from some retooling, and the last part of the film is justifiably open for debate, but this film registers abnormally high on my creepiness meter, and a horror fan can hardly ask for more than that.

The story is presented as a documentary account/recreation of ghost hunter Carter Simms' investigation of the Masterson house in Arizona - an investigation which, as we are told from the outset, resulted in Simms' death. The house itself has been preserved almost untouched for the past twenty years, ever since the Masterson family (a minister, his wife, and their two children) were brutally murdered within its walls. The house's current owner offers Simms five grand to investigate the goings-on there, and she is only too happy to oblige - even though it means working alongside a videographer and a newspaper reporter. While Simms prefers to work alone, her new little trio works together fairly well. The fourth member of this rag-tag team is a problem, though. Mary Young Mortensen, a member of the church Mr. Masterson founded, is there to make sure the good name of the Mortensen family isn't besmirched. It's a very fundamentalist church, and Mary herself is the worst kind of Christian - exceedingly judgmental and all too quick to condemn others. Some Christian viewers may be offended by such a stereotypical portrayal of this Bible-thumper extraordinaire. As a fundamentalist myself, I know she is in no way representative of my beliefs and practices, though, so it really doesn't bother me personally. As far as the ghost hunting itself goes, truly dramatic things are observed and experienced the very first night, setting the stage for one intensive and eye-opening investigation that plays out in a way that Carter Simms could never have foreseen.

Despite all of the bad reviews this film has gotten, I personally consider it one of the best haunting-based movies I've ever seen. I say this as a pretty seasoned horror veteran who has been watching every horror film I can get my hands on for over a quarter of a century. Yes, I will acknowledge the fact that this film has some flaws (particularly in the acting department), most of which are a direct result of the movie's low budget. Given the resources at hand (according to my research, the film was made with a paltry budget of just ten thousand dollars), though, Death of a Ghost Hunter succeeds triumphantly. The cinematography is amazing and the low-CGI special effects work exceedingly well. The rapid-flash blending of past and present is presented much more effectively than what you will find in most large-budget horror films, and the ghostly manifestations presented throughout the course of the film include some of the creepiest shots I've ever seen. That all speaks to one heck of a good directing job. The early and late exposition scenes may run a tad long for some viewers, but everything in between is tightly shot by a director who really knows how to build tension, suspense, and atmosphere. If this movie is any indication, it's just a matter of time before Sean Tretta is a household name among horror fans. I know there are a lot of bad reviews of this film out there, but I would just ask you to give this film a chance. It's one of the best low-budget horror films I've ever seen.

Not-bad low budget film about a ghost hunter & others investigating a supposedly haunted house. The filmmakers do an admirable job of maintaining a creepy atmosphere throughout even without a lot of money at their disposal. The spfx are decent as is the film score by actor Mike Marsh. There are some negatives, though: the acting is a bit dodgy; one of the characters is so obviously the antagonist that they might as well have showed up wearing a black hat & sporting a twirly black moustache; and the twist ending can be spotted a mile away. All-in-all, this a decent little horror film. C+

I wasn't expecting much from this, but it was actually a decent movie. I was interested in the story, the acting didn't get too much in the way. It had a decent ending for this kind of genre. I'm writing this a few months after seeing it and I still favor it. I suggest it to any real ghost fans of the indie/guerilla market.

REality like the Blair Witch Project, purports to be based on the final journal entries of a ghost hunter investigating a haunted house. The premise could have been fun, but there were a couple of problems. First the audio was really lousy - volume turned all the way up and could still barely hear the dialogue in many of the scenes. Second, the acting was pretty horrific, I've seen high school drama delivered more convincingly. Third (okay, more than a couple), the reveal of the truth behind the haunting wasn't handled all that well. It really seemed like, "okay, we have to tell the audience what really happened now, because there is now way we could have shown them that prior to this." The ultimate destination of a the ghost hunter was kind of fun, though. One warning, although not anti-christian (at least I wouldn't consider it so), it does not deal kindly with a certain kind of fundamentalist view point, and could be considered offensive to some.

It is hard to find good horror movies, so I was very pleased to run across this one. The story is of a team of Ghost Hunters who take a job with one very haunted house. The movie is done on a tight budget but they make it work for them. The story works on two levels of horror which is nice and adds to the realistic feel of the film. There are one or two of the actors that are not very convincing but overall it still works. If you are tired of Hollywood horror and gore and ready for something legitimately creepy, check this one out.

You Know, I Remember when people complained about similar films that were released, a few years back... I think this could have easily passed off as "Blaire Witch Project 1.5"... It has a few interesting messages, But still VERY "Hollywoodized"... Also, Somebody has tagged this product as "Dumass", (If thats even how its spelt...) Whilst this tag made me laugh out loud, Its VERY true!

I have to say when i first saw this I wasn't sure if it was a true documentary or fake. It had all the right info in the beginning to make it believable. But of course your mind is always going straight to Ghost Hunters reality show so you will see the differences there. I still like this one quite a bit. it has suspense, creepy, and I think if they put it on the big screen at this time, they could have had a hit. My daughters friends were over (teenagers) and it scared the crude out of them. So it is a B movie and it's decent, worth seeing.

Okay, it's definitely a B movie. The sound levels are wildly uneven, as if all the actors were trying to share one badly placed overhead mic. The portrayal of Mary's "religious fundamentalism" was a laughable caricature, as such portrayals generally are. Two of the leads, Patti Tindall and Mike Marsh, were fine, but some of the acting and dialog was pretty bad, especially when the main characters first meet each other. Some real character development would have made it a better film, as would tighter editing. All that said, even at its worst, it's not as embarrassingly bad as Ghost Hunters ("whoa, dude - did you hear that?"). Once they catch the first images on video, I got sucked in. I liked the bit where Davina Joy and Marsh have fun with references to other horror films, including Blair Witch. And from the point where Mary returns, I found everything plenty disturbing enough to hold my attention to the end (partly because I was intrigued by the direction I mistakenly thought the story was going). I found the ending effective, and ended up liking the film more than I initially expected to.

The actors in this are for the most part so bad that they ruin much of what might have been a more effective story of a haunted house with deadly entities wreaking havoc at night.

This was great! I really enjoyed it and recommend it. It was creepy and well made and the plot was pleasingly twisty. So many movies have annoyingly obvious plots and scenarios, but this one was original and hard to peg and really quite riveting.