Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Ghostmaker (2011)

When college student Kyle is hired to clean out a cellar, he finds an old casket, and tells the homeowner that it might be worth money and he can sell lit for her. But the lady isn't interested and makes him promise the item will be destroyed.  Kyle agrees, but he's not the most trustworthy person and decides to try to sell it himself.

As he's cleaning the inside, he discovers that underneath the padding is a complex series of gears.  Research reveals the  box was made in the 15th century by a man who was rumored to be in league with Satan, and who made the box as a way to  preview of what death is like.

When Kyle, his roommate Sutton, and their friend Platt decide to test out the box, you know it won't turn out well.  They get in the coffin and lie on top of the gears, and I'm already afraid that they're going to get their hair stuck in the gears.   Thankfully they end up having out of body experiences, and don't ever know the pain of pulled hair.

When Sutton discovers he doesn't need a wheelchair in the ghost world, and that he can spy on Kyle's girlfriend, who he's in love with, it's not a good sign for any of them.  Honestly though, who could resist a world where your useless limbs work?

The three agree that after their first experiences, they will stay out of the coffin until Platt can do more research. He's concerned about what it's actually doing to their bodies, which turns out to be a good idea since after one trip he's seeing creatures, having nosebleeds and getting headaches.  But Kyle and Sutton both have less noble pursuits in mind and each sneaks back into the box for their own nefarious reasons.

This had a decent budget, and looked good but the story was fairly slow paced. The effects weren't over the top and looked pretty good.  While Kyle isn't played heavy handed, the guy is a total jerk which is pretty odd for a protagonist. He steals his girlfriends credit card, swipes a rare book from the library where Platt works, smokes meth, and makes wheelchair bound Sutton pay all the bills and even answer the door when the bell rings.  So when his out of body experiences involve getting info to help him steal money and drugs, he's just being Kyle.  Too bad Kyle's a tool. Lucky for Kyle one other person in the film turns the corner for the worse and out does him.

The coffin with the gears just waiting to grab
the hair of anyone who lies down.




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