One year after his young son disappeared during a Halloween carnival, Mike Cole is haunted by eerie images and terrifying messages he can’t explain. Together with his estranged wife, he will stop at nothing to unravel the mystery and find their son—and, in doing so, he unearths a legend that refuses to remain buried in the past.
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Reviews
The Age of Commercialism
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
There's a lot of build up for nothing, worth watching but it's not an amazing film.
A professor (Nic Cage) frantically searches for his son who was abducted during a Halloween parade."Pay the Ghost" received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 11%, based on 21 reviews, with a rating of 3.8/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 23 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".The real mystery is that this film received any positive reviews at all. The acting is terrible, just terrible. This is not one of Cage's better roles, though it actually is not his worst. And then Sarah Wayne Callies... how does she keep getting cast in movies and television? She is so awful, she ruins everything, and yet keeps coming back. Is she blackmailing someone?
I'm completely aware of all the hate Nicholas Cage gets (which I disagree with), however I actually consider him a good actor that commonly falls into the wrong hands. In this little horror film, Nicholas Cage actually gives an acceptable performance as the main role with good, sentimental angry outbursts of rage. It's nothing special, but I enjoyed this film because of it's imaginative, dark cinematography and quietly creepy atmosphere. It's got good jumpscares, surprisingly eye-capturing visual effects and an alright storyline to keep it going, and as long as you expect little from this film you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. I have to remark, this is actually one of Nicholas Cage's better films after all the crap he's acted in previously, and it's good that he's still acting in some films worthy of your time.
Truth be told, then this 2015 movie starring Nicolas Cage can be summarized with one single word: mediocre.Well, let's just add a bit more of filling to the review anyway, shall we? First of all, I must honestly admit that I had no hopes for this movie, given it being a Nicolas Cage movie after all. I am not a fan of his or his one single expression; constipated. And truth to the tendency, then he doesn't really excel in "Pay the Ghost".The story did have potential, I will admit that much. It is about a vengeful spirit, or ghost if you will, that appear once a year at Halloween to snatch three living children from the world of the the living. But when the ghost takes Charlie (played by Jack Fulton), son of Mike (played by Nicolas Cage) and Kristen (played by Sarah Wayne Callies), a game of ethereal trailing and tracking is set afoot. Mike wants to find and return his son at all costs.Well, it had potential, but it was all drowned in a myriad of predictable situations and outcomes. As such, then director Uli Edel didn't impress much.The effects in the movie were good, and the design of the vengeful spirit was actually quite interesting.But the movie was just a shallow shell of a movie, honestly. It was too predictable to be wholly entertaining, and the few scares that were to be had in the movie was from some really cheap scare tactics; as in jump-out-at-your-face techniques go.And the final showdown between Mike and the spirit, which you saw coming a mile away was about as anti-climatic as it could be. A few measly moments of ethereal pommeling and then it was all over.The acting in "Pay the Ghost" was also mediocre. This was nowhere near being at the top of what Nicolas Cage is actually capable of doing, and Sarah Wayne Callies seemed to be like a drone caught out of the air.Don't get your hopes up for this one. And if you are looking for a scary movie that will have you wishing that you'd left the lights on, then "Pay the Ghost" is not the choice. I am rating it a very mediocre five out of ten stars.