Urban Ghost Story

I caught Urban Ghost Story on t.v. recently and I have to say I was very impressed. I was familiar with the film makers through their authorship of the Guerilla Film Makers Handbook but, to be honest, after reading about their first two features 'The Runner' and 'White Angel' (neither of which I have seen) I wasn't expecting great things from Urban Ghost Story.

It turned out however to be a very effective piece of film making which works just as well as social realism as it does as a genre film. The central performance, given by a young non-actor, possesses a raw, natural quality which helps to ground the film's supernatural aspects in a very well observed reality. Stephanie Buttle as the girl's mother is a real find as well, having to work hard against her natural beauty to make her portrayal of a dirt poor single mother convincing. Less impressive are the star turns. Billy Boyd is an ineffectual, stuttering gangster and Jason Connery (a questionable piece of stunt casting) does little with his role as a shady tabloid journalist. The film works hard though to create a believable locale, a Glasgow tower block, and succeeds totally. The film makers have clearly taken the Robert Wise 'Haunting' approach to depicting the ghostly activity and for the most part it works. These scenes could have done with being a little scarier perhaps but a bizarre seance scene does unnerve. Most impressive of all though is the fact that Urban Ghost Story was made for a reported £250,000. For that money they have created an atmospheric film which feels cinematic, complete with a jaw dropping explosion and stunt work. If only more British low budget film making was this adventurous. I am surprised to see that the director has not made a film in the six years since release whereas Merchant Ivory (whose films have gone largely unwatched since Remains of the Day) get money thrown at them. I only wish that more film makers like Ms Joliffe would emerge to shake up the British film industry.

Film-making duo Jones & Jolliffe deliver bleak and spooky visions in modern day Blighty with this inspired tale of the supernatural.

A winning cast plays out the story of a 12 year-old girl haunted by survivor's guilt after living through a horrific car accident that claimed her best friend. The guilty conscience coincides with subtle but decidedly ethereal events in the family's rundown, government subsidized building. Is a ghost haunting the family or is there a corporeal explanation for furniture going bump in the night?

The film looks startling realistic which heightens the goose flesh when the boo shocks come (especially in the first 25 minutes) but the film doesn't settle for scares, it also examines the real world struggles of a single mother and her brood facing down to earth skepticism of money lenders, social workers and the police. Some viewers may be put off when the film neglects ghostly activity in favor of character study, and perhaps some of the tone shifts are unwieldy, nonetheless this is one of the best (and painfully overlooked by US distributors) British genre films since DOG SOLDIERS. Bravo.

Well, this is a shame. After all the good review I had heard/ read about this film, I managed to rent it out on video, and was left feeling very let down.

The initial concept appealed to me anyway, so without the knowledge of the strong reviews I would have eventually watched this film.

The story? A young girl dies for approx 3 minutes in a car crash with her best male friend. He dies, but she lives. She is brought back from death with an evil spirit and survivor's guilt. Set in Scotland, I saw this as a nice departure from the over-glamourised Hollywood supernatural movies.

The first 15/20 minutes are used to create an unsettling atmosphere, and I did jump a few times. From then on, it's all downhill.

We are treated to many, many flashbacks that deal with the actual car crash, and these do get tiresome after a while. Jason Connery, not a patch on his Dad, is very annoying and I did feel the need to switch off when he came close to being on screen.

If the film does have a good point, it's in the performance of Heather Ann Foster who plays the enigmatic and traumatised Lizzie. She IS the film, and she seems to carry this burden very well, for a girl of such a young age, she seemed very confident.

Of course, people will try and compare this film to "Poltergeist", which, in plain English Should not be done - they are both totally separate films!!!

This film wanted, and could have been so much more than it is. It is a shame that I didn't enjoy it, but I hope someone out there does.

I just didn't connect to this film at all

A half way decent mix of supernatural goings on and a close examination of a family torn apart by a tragic accident. Like the spirit, this film doesn't know where it is. It's basically lost.

5/10

After a car accident, Lizzie lies dead on the roadside - slowly she is taken into the light - but is pulled back to earth when she is revived by the doctors.

It's a descent ghost story, nothing special. Good acting though.

Billy Boyd is the sexiest Glaswegian thug ever, I want to have his little ned babies. He will beat me and I will drink all the time and the children will steal cars and start smoking when they are seven, we will be the perfect family. I will stick by him even through his years in prison and his numerous bits of stuff on the side. This is my dream.

Jason Connery is also not bad looking, even funny German scientist dude was kinda cute. The movie was also quite good, well worth the £4.99 I paid that's for damn sure. Take a couple of characters from Trainspotting and stick them into a mix of Sixth Sense and Poltergeist. Now ramp down your expectations to British ITV movie level and you're there. A lot better than I would have expected.