I have said this before, “Every once in a while, you find a real gem hidden amongst the dross. When this happens it reaffirms your belief that there is still real talent out there in search of better actors and a bigger budget.”
Last night we found another of these ‘hidden gems’ via LOVEFILM. It was actually as scary as Insidious but on a slightly different scale. Where Insidious seemed to have perfected the ‘jump’ scare, Death of a Ghost Hunter, despite the apparent non-existence of a budget, perfected the creep scare.
The amazing thing is, I passed over this film repeatedly in the menu screen on LOVEFILM. The combination of the screenshot used to tout the film along with the lack of a rating made me ignore it at least a dozen times.
Directed and co-written by Sean Tretta (Mike Marsh was the other writer of the screenplay and he also played Colin Green the videographer.) Death of a Ghost Hunter delivers more than it’s fair share of scares. The low budget (so low that it doesn’t appear to exist on any website) is a bit detrimental to the film’s overall success. Mainly in the area of sound, specifically dialogue. If ever a film could have benefited from ADR or just good old fashioned ‘looping’ Ghost Hunter is that film.
The film opened to mixed reviews most of which praised the scare factor but dammed the acting. I felt that the acting was pretty damn good considering just how low budget the film was. The plot and the story were written extremely well and the film was excellently paced.
The odd ‘clanger’ of a scene would appear every now and then, but it was usually followed by a scene that more than made up for the jolting moment of less than pristine acting. I still think that most of the film’s acting problems would have been eradicated with better sound equipment.
The plot is fairly straightforward. The film opens with a woman in a nightgown murdering her family and finishing by shooting herself after writing a note of explanation.
22 years later we are introduced to paranormal journalist Carter Simms (Patti Tindall) who is on her way to the house where the murder/suicide took place. She has been offered $5000.00 to either prove or disprove the existence of ghostly happenings on the property.
Arriving at the residence, she meets the owner Joseph Masterson (Tim Wadhams) who is a close relative of the family who died there. He explains to Simms that she will have a local ‘team’ to help her in her investigations. Not overly pleased, but unable to resist the money offered, Simms agrees.
Patti Tindall as Carter Simms
Later she meets her ‘crew’ Colin Green a local videographer and Yvette Sandoval (Davina Joy) a local journalist. A third person arrives who says that Masterson has asked her oversee the events and to minimize the damage that could be caused to the church that the deceased belonged to.
Despite their initial misgivings the group accept Mary Young Mortenson (Lindsay Page) believing her explanation of intent. Later they find that Masterson has no idea who she is and demands that she be removed from the property.
We find out, along with the ghost hunters, that the Masterson family who lived and died in the house were not your normal everyday bible thumping zealots. This family were, in effect, cultists who worshipped the father of the family and allowed him to sexually molest young women in the neighbourhood. Families would bring their daughters to him for ‘cleansing’ on a regular basis.
This film was brilliantly scary. The build-up and sequences of dis-jarring events kept you off balance enough to really deliver the scares. I can only imagine what this film could have been with a bigger budget.
Running at just 107 minutes the film is not overly long and it paces it’s creepiness brilliantly in the time alloted. I really think that if you can find this film that you won’t regret spending 107 minutes of your life getting the crap scared out of you.
I will be keeping my eyes out for the team of Sean Tretta and Mike Marsh and any future films that they might be making together. They have worked together at least two other times and we can only hope that they repeat the experience for our entertainment enjoyment.
Death of a Ghost Hunter is easily a ’2 bagger’ of popcorn viewing scary fun. Highly recommended viewing if you can get past the bargain basement budget of the film.
Related articles
- Ghosts And Real-Life Ghost Hunters by Michael Teitelbaum. (encinolibrary.wordpress.com)
- Jason Hawes talks Ghost Hunters season (wpri.com)
- Future Cyborg/Future Ghost Hunter (eastvalleyparanormal.wordpress.com)
- Ghost Hunters S08E14: Camp Fear (gnostalgia.wordpress.com)
- Going off-track: A visit to the paranormal side of Dragon Con (idoubtit.wordpress.com)
- Wanted: Ghost hunter, no experience required (thestar.com)
- Review of Ghost Hunters Episode “A Serial Killer’s Revenge” (socyberty.com)
I’ll be seeking this one out. Thanks, Mike.
This one was a real surprise, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Where did you find it?
It was streaming on LOVEFILM in the UK.
Yah, solid review: def going to find this one. Also good call on the Tretta/Marsh partnership! :>
Well worth a look. I think that the reason this got so little in the way of positive feedback is because Tretta/March seem to do ‘straight’ to video films, which is a bit unfair. Thanks!
Good deal, Mike. My sister and I have gotten together to watch horror movies leading up to Halloween, whatever the reason, for the last few years. Her boyfriend’s a good guy, but he’d scare over Finding Nemo, so we watch them instead. Lol I’ll tell you, it takes a lot to win us over, as we can be be very cynical towards bad writing or cheap scares. We smell even the slightest hint of ‘cheese’ and the rest of the movie’s just gonna stink. We’ll be cracking one-liners for the rest of the movie…(The Fuller Family Seal of Disapproval) The Orphanage was the last excellent horror film I’ve seen, and that was last year. I’ll be mentioning both this and Insidious in this case. Thanks for the good word, Mike!
PS) You ever want a brain-rot horror film, something my cousin can’t seem to get enough of, and probably something you’ve seen your share of already, check out Killer Clowns from Outer Space. The clowns are the stuff of children’s nightmares. Well, mine mostly… But holy frick if it isn’t the dumbest thing you’ve ever seen. Only saw pieces of it because of said cousin.
I’ve had a couple of chances to see Killer Clowns…I’ll have to keep an eye out. One liners during a bad film and ‘predicting’ the next scene and laughing hysterically at all the ‘wrong’ places all signs that we’re watching a film made by morons with a camera! Cheers mate!!
I was very impressed with this one. It’s one of the best B-movies of the decade, and more people should see it.
Agreed! It’s a shame that it has been so ignored! Thanks for sharing.
Ooh, I’m intrigued. Thanks for the heads up.
No worries. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
I’m in need of a good scare! Thanks for reviewing this, I’ll be checking this out asap.