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DVD Review: “Pay The Ghost” Infuses Some Genuine Scares

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A professor frantically searches for his son who was abducted during a Halloween parade.

I think it’s a well-known fact that for the past few years, Nicolas Cage has pretty much accepted any movie role that has been offered to him. Supposedly, he has some financial debts he needs to pay off so every film he makes is pretty much a paycheck. Honestly, I don’t know if this is true but it appears that his choices of films have, at times, been less than stellar. How many people remember his riveting performances in such classics as “Left Behind,” “Trespass,” “Seeking Justice” and “Rage?” I’m sure most people wouldn’t even recognize those titles if their life depended on it. On the other hand, Mr. Cage could be deliberately spending his time between blockbusters such as the “National Treasure” series and the “Ghost Rider” franchise and smaller, more personal films, giving star quality to low-budget movies that could benefit from his name.

Either way, his film resume is quite diverse, to say the very least. With his latest offering, “Pay the Ghost,” Mr. Cage stars as Mike Lawford, a university professor who spends more time at work than he does at home with his beautiful wife Kristen (Sarah Wayne Callies) and young son Charlie (Jack Fulton). One Halloween, having missed trick or treating with his son, he arrives home late and decides to take Charlie to a Halloween parade not far from their home. Charlie loves the parade and the fact that he is up late on Halloween and while walking around, he asks his dad “Do we need to pay the ghost?” Mike doesn’t understand the question and shrugs it off, putting it down to the spooky atmosphere surrounding the two but when he stops to buy them some ice cream, Charlie is gone. Frantic, Mike searches everywhere for him, eventually running home, thinking he might have made his way there but he is nowhere to be found.

One year later, Mike and Kristen are separated, with Mike living in a small apartment while Kristen has remained in the house. She continues to blame Mike for Charlie’s abduction and nothing he says can change her mind. As Halloween approaches once more, Mike begins to see and hear strange things and when he comes across an old, abandoned building, covered in graffiti which reads “Pay the Ghost,” he makes his way inside. After hearing a bloodcurdling woman’s voice scream out, he encounters a blind man who informs him that every year at Halloween, her screams can be heard.

Mike goes to meet Kristen who informs him that she has been seeing and hearing strange things too, including Charlie’s scooter moving by itself. Afraid, she asks Mike to stay in the house with her and they decide to hire a psychic. After coming to the house, she senses nothing initially but is then thrown violently around the room by an unseen force. Before she dies from her injuries, she states “It’s here, it has all the children.”

Later that night, Mike finds Kristen cutting herself with a knife and speaking with her son’s voice, exclaiming “She’s coming. I’m afraid.” He notices a strange symbol on her skin which points them to a Celtic Halloween celebration where they find out that many years ago in 1679, when New York was very young, a woman who was suspected of being a witch was burned at the stake along with her three young children. Before being engulfed in flames, she swore that she would have her revenge and every year on Halloween, she takes three children from the city.

A woman at the celebration informs him that there is a bridge between our world and the witch’s and that he has until midnight to try and retrieve his son, otherwise, he will be trapped there along with all the children who have been taken over the years. With time running out, Mike must make the trip into the abyss if he is to save his son and hope that he won’t encounter the witch on his quest.

“Pay the Ghost” works because of its charismatic two leads, Nicolas Cage and Sarah Wayne Callies. They play a grief-stricken couple convincingly and both actor each has their moment to shine as they try to come to terms with the loss of their son. The movie has some genuinely scary moments and a somewhat believable storyline, given the subject matter and director Uli Edel infuses the film with some much-needed moments of levity. I’ve seen better but believe me, as a horror aficionado, I have seen a lot worse.

Available on DVD and Blu-ray November 10th

 
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James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.