Jason (David Naughton) moves into an abandoned train car where he resurrects the vicious ghost of his landlady's dead husband... The Mister (John Carl Buechler). After some near-fatal encounters with the violent specter he seeks local exorcist Vincent Tuttle (Kevin McCarthy).
Another review called this film "a snooze". A snooze? With Kevin McCarthy, David Naughton and effects master John Carl Buechler? How could a film with these three horror giants be a snooze? The constant wisecracks, the older journalist returning to school... plenty of potential for a good ghost story here, with 1980s comedy thrown in.
Even John Bowen, who concedes the film is charming and endearing, believes the film is greatly flawed. He says the movie is "trying way too hard to be clever", is full of continuity problems and has a premise that is "vague and arbitrary". That last concern pretty much sums up the horror genre. Bowen is especially hard on writer Greg Collins O'Neill ("Tuff Turf"), but there is always that question of how much you can blame dialogue on the writer and how much has been reworked by the director or actors.
The effects are very cool, as should be expected. The Mister emerging from the walls, the use of seat springs to drill through a man... this is more than a ghost story, it is a bloody killing spree.
Another review called this film "a snooze". A snooze? With Kevin McCarthy, David Naughton and effects master John Carl Buechler? How could a film with these three horror giants be a snooze? The constant wisecracks, the older journalist returning to school... plenty of potential for a good ghost story here, with 1980s comedy thrown in.
Even John Bowen, who concedes the film is charming and endearing, believes the film is greatly flawed. He says the movie is "trying way too hard to be clever", is full of continuity problems and has a premise that is "vague and arbitrary". That last concern pretty much sums up the horror genre. Bowen is especially hard on writer Greg Collins O'Neill ("Tuff Turf"), but there is always that question of how much you can blame dialogue on the writer and how much has been reworked by the director or actors.
The effects are very cool, as should be expected. The Mister emerging from the walls, the use of seat springs to drill through a man... this is more than a ghost story, it is a bloody killing spree.