Ghost Stories ** (2017, Andy Nyman, Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther) – Movie Review

Andy Nyman stars as a parapsychology professor, the arch sceptic Professor Phillip Goodman, stumbles across a long-lost file containing details of three cases of supposedly inexplicable hauntings and must solve the puzzle of the three strange ghost stories to debunk the supernatural.

Led by a mysterious cassette, Professor Goodman meets three victims of the supernatural, night watchman Tony Matthews (Paul Whitehouse), nervy teenager Simon Rifkind (Alex Lawther) and Scots financier Mike Priddle (Martin Freeman).

Andy Nyman stars in Ghost Stories (2017).

Writers-directors Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s horror anthology screenplay is based on a London West End play by League of Gentleman writer Jeremy Dyson, but the duo have been careful to turn it into something satisfyingly cinematic. So that’s good – a well-made Brit film. Much craft and care has evidently gone into it. It is clearly a labour of love by Dyson and Nyman, and that shows.

With the decent set-up, you are on its side at the start, and it is watchable, but it is not really funny, and not really scary, and it doesn’t really work, at least not very well. Where’s the terror? Where are the laughs? Recalling so many other movies and stories, it doesn’t feel at all fresh. But it doesn’t need to. It just needs to be funny and scary, but it isn’t, and its climax fizzles familiarly out.

Martin Freeman stars in Ghost Stories (2017).

Whitehouse’s segment is by far the best – his segment in an abandoned factory comes nearest to being genuinely creepy – but it’s all downhill after that, with Lawther and Freeman both surprisingly lacklustre. Everybody concerned evidently wants to be liked but only Whitehouse is actually likeable here. Like the film, Freeman’s ‘Scottish’ accent needs more work.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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