Ghost Team - An Underrated Emotional Horror Gem
I'm not crazy, my fiance was abducted by aliens
When I saw this trailer awhile ago I thought it looked hilarious and was excited to see last night. But what I was not expecting was to watch a very emotional, character driven film. I'm actually still undecided about it. I don't even know if I would classify it as a horror, or a comedy, or a drama. It's like a weird mix of all three.
Directed by Oliver Irving, Ghost Team was released in 2016 and stars Jon Heder as the lead role of Louis, David Krumholtz as his very depressed best friend Stan, Melonie Diaz as the gorgeous and adorable Ellie. Then there's also Justin Long as the security guard Ross who completely gives himself to this role, the hilarious Amy Sedaris as Victoria the "psychic" and Paul W. Downs as Zak, Louis' nephew.
I felt quite connected to this film because Louis and Stan are two people who spend their nights watching ghost shows like Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters, only in this film it's Ghost Getters. And in fact Jason Hawes from Ghost Hunters plays a member of Ghost Getters in this movie. Louis and Stan feel like if they can hunt ghosts too then their lives will have meaning.
I remember when I was in between schools and working part time at a dry cleaners and just felt completely lost. I would obsessively watch ghost hunting shows and my best friend and I would spend our nights running through graveyards trying to find any evidence. It’s funny how when we’re at our lowest in life and stuck in a rut, we look to death as an inspiration to remind us life is worth living.
Louis works at a copy store and Stan lives out of his car, completely depressed after his fiancé never showed up on their wedding day. Stan deals with this by believing his wife was abducted by aliens. Which is quite heartbreaking really. He can't face the reality of her leaving so instead creates an implausible reason for her disappearing. Ghost Getters are holding a competition where if you can send in the best evidence of the paranormal, you can join their team. This is a dream for Louis and Stan who decide to get together a ghost hunting team of their own.
This includes Ellie who Louis has a bit of crush on who works next door to him in the salon. Ellie herself is interested because her brother overdosed a few years back and she wants some closure. Zak who is working at a Best Buy type store will be their tech specialist. Louis considers him a genius because he believes Zak graduated college two years early with an engineering degree when in reality Zak quit after two. Ross is the security guard of the mall and joins them to protect them, he also comes with his own sad back story - after attempting to join the police he is turned away because he's not "tough enough". And lastly they have Victoria as their psychic who is in fact a fake TV psychic trying to make a living.
This mismatched team head to an abandoned farm house/barn and proceed to fumble along capturing some EVP's, some thermo cam evidence and seeing footprints. But when each one of them start disappearing one by one, Louis and Ellie are left alone to discover what is really going on here.
Qualms with this movie? Amy Sedaris is very under used. She's a power house of comedy and yet is barely given any screen time. The scares were very minimal and I feel like they could've upped the creep factor to make the ending and the comedy land better.
What I loved? How emotional this movie was. It really asks the question about those of us who are obsessed with the paranormal and why we are. Is it because we lost someone, or we're stuck in our own boring lives, or we're trying to run from something, trying to prove ourselves? For as long as we have known, the world has been obsessed with the paranormal because ultimately it answers the question of what happens to us after death.
I really loved how everyone's characters developed and came into their own. One night has changed all of these sad misfits forever and made them closer to each other, forming a group of friends. During the climax of the film, all of these characters are given a chance to redeem themselves and prove to themselves that they're better than they believe they are.
Stan was my favorite. He was the funniest and the saddest and was given the greatest chance to show himself that life is worth living regardless of what happens to us after death.
So yeah, Ghost Team was completely unexpected. I went in to watch a horror comedy expecting lots of laughs and gore and instead felt very introspective and emotional.
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