A Ghost Waits (2020) - Comedy Romance Horror Film Review

A Ghost Waits is a charming low budget indie that combines elements of horror, comedy, and romance all into one. This was the work of Adam Stovall who along with directing this also co-wrote the story, was responsible for casting, did additional camera work, and produced and edited this. Heck, he even shows up in a bit part acting here. This is very much a film whose ideas and themes could only really ever be explored in such a way in an indie piece.

Jack (MacLeod Andrews - Doctor Sleep, They Look Like People) works for a housing company, his job is to clean up houses after the former tenants have moved out in order for them to be ready for new tenants. Due to his own house being fumigated he needs somewhere to stay, and with his small circle of acquaintances not being forthcoming with help he decides he is going to stay at the current property he is fixing up. Unknown to him however this house is haunted by Muriel (Natalie Walker - Search Party, Bojack Horseman), a ghost tasked with scaring away any new visitors to her home. She has been successful up to this point, but finds Jack to be a challenge. Starting off antagonistic to him, over the course of days the pair begin to realise that they have much more in common with each other than either of them could have realised.

The horror part of A Ghost Waits is literally the first couple of minutes of its one hour twenty minute run time. It begins with the former family fleeing in terror from the property in a neatly edited chaotic montage of stop start scenes. I was actually still sorting out my headphones at this point in the movie and so nearly jumped out my skin when Muriel started screaming, as I had inadvertently gotten the volume on my headset up to max! Aside from the woman being a ghost there isn't really any more horror to be found here, outside of a couple of brief scenes. After that prologue this turns into a comedic piece for its first two acts, before taking on a much more dramatic and romantic story in its final third. It is quite po faced and earnest in this third act, regardless of your thoughts on this the film has a lot of heart.

She's Allergic to Cats (2016) - Horror Film Review

I figured the one good thing about this pandemic would be the amount of free time I would have to work on my blog. Instead it is the opposite, ended up not only still working full time, but the added bonus of all holiday being cancelled and so I'm not going to get a chance anytime soon to catch up on my outstanding posts. I'm currently fit to bursting with movies to watch for review and so I need to be a bit more picky. Director/writer Michael Reich's She's Allergic to Cats didn't sound like horror in the traditional sense, but it sure sounded unique and so I knew despite my new found pickiness I had to check it out.

Mike Pinkney stars as Mike, a dog groomer in Hollywood with aspirations to make films. As a hobby he makes video art, and his big dream is to re-make his favourite horror movie Carrie, but with cats playing all the parts. One day at his day job he meets the mysterious Cora (Sonja Kinski - Holidays segment "Mothers Day") and instantly they form a connection. They agree to a date, a date that will tragically change their lives forever...

She's Allergic to Cats is a really bizarre film, and that aspect is what drew me to it. It straddles several different genres, it is both horror, romance, and comedy wrapped up in an art house bow. Art house can be a tough style of filmmaking to love, I sometimes feel the abstract nature of it can hide deficiencies in the storytelling. Here it is pure art house at times, my unofficial criteria of this genre includes nightmare sequences, non sexulised nudity and a general unraveling of cohesiveness. This had the feel of a more indie Garden State, helped by the fact that Pinkney really reminded me in look of Zach Braff, and how the main characters of that film were also oddballs like Mike and Cora were.