Ghosthunters (2016)
1/10
Deadly dull ghost hunting
5 May 2018
Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of The Asylum's (near-universally maligned for good reason) output, though there is curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and compulsive about their output's badness. Admittedly, The Asylum do have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out.

'Ghosthunters' is not quite one of The Asylum's all time worst, they've definitely done worse that have been more amateurish and insulted the intelligence more. With that being said, even when taking it for what it was, and from watching other films from The Asylum it is abundantly clear it shouldn't be taken seriously, it was a very poorly executed film and towards the bottom, compensated only by some eerily creepy scenery.

Visually, 'Ghosthunters' looks incredibly cheap even for something made on a low budget. It's very drably and sometimes dizzyingly shot, incoherently edited (bacon-slicer-like) with glaring and unforgivably sloppy continuity errors, wasting some eerie-looking scenery.

Regarding the effects, they still look very cheap though and like they were an afterthought and made in haste. The ghosts look goofy and too reminiscent of people in costumes and are not scary at all. Am aware of the film being low-budget, but there are examples of low-budget films that still don't look awful and manage to be pretty good.

Can remember little about the music, which tended to be intrusive, annoying and out of place. The script makes little sense, sounds awkward constantly and on the wrong side of camp throughout.

Nothing thrilling, tense, suspenseful, emotionally investable or fun about the story. The predictability (with the ending being incredibly obvious very early on) may have been forgivable if the film was actually engaging let alone exciting but it fails to be either throughout. 'Ghosthunters' is basically non-stop dullness, and intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, with a complete lack of tension, suspense, scares or even atmosphere.

There is also, as is the case with a lot of The Asylum films, unintentional humour because of the excessive cheese and laughably goofy interpretations of the ghosts, numerous illogical moments, bouts of mawkish drama (couldn't get behind the whole derivative and over-sentimental previous circumstances regarding the family murders, should have been tense and affecting but was neither) and irritating character behaviours that makes one endear to them even less in a film with not one interesting or rootable character.

Acting sees the actors either over-compensating or sleepwalking through their roles, nobody gives a halfway decent performance and instead never rises above mediocre (often awful).

In summary, deadly dull. 1/10 Bethany Cox
2 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed