URBAN GHOST STORY is a human drama masquerading as a horror film, or more accurately ghost story. Just as THE MACHINIST saw Christian Bale's character haunted by sinister events of the past, so URBAN GHOST STORY is all about a teenage girl haunted, not by a ghost in her apartment, but by a traumatic incident that killed her friend and almost killed her as well. As such, this is a character drama all about guilt, forgiveness and redemption, so those expecting POLTERGEIST-style hijinks will be sorely disappointed.
The story begins slowly, and it's an undoubted disappointment when you realise this has a budget on par with an ITV drama. The acting is changeable, to say the least, and for the first half of the film we're saddled with a repellent lead who it's hard to sympathise with. Then things start to improve, the film begins having fun by twisting the audience's expectations, and the characters grow to the extent they become believable people. No Hollywood gloss here, just strong filmmaking.
The cast is wide-ranging for a low budget drama. Jason Connery will always act in his father's shadow, but he handles a complex role well here and I came away liking him a lot. Heather Ann Foster has the toughest role, but she's never less than believable. She fits well into the gritty, grimy surrounds. There are a fair few faces, like the always unpleasant Nicola Stapleton playing another chav character, BRAVEHEART stalwart James Cosmo as a priest, and a scene-stealing Billy Boyd playing a loan shark, about a hundred miles away from his role as Pippin in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Boyd is a really venomous characters who nails the facial tics perfectly. Even Andreas Wisniewski, the familiar bad guy from THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and DIE HARD, turns up as a ghost hunter.
The spiritual stuff is well handled and realistic, and pretty eerie with it. On more than one occasion this film reminded me of GHOSTWATCH, the seminal BBC drama that had viewers scared out of their wits one Halloween. In the end, though, the ghost stuff is secondary to a strong, moving story with genuinely believable characters.
The story begins slowly, and it's an undoubted disappointment when you realise this has a budget on par with an ITV drama. The acting is changeable, to say the least, and for the first half of the film we're saddled with a repellent lead who it's hard to sympathise with. Then things start to improve, the film begins having fun by twisting the audience's expectations, and the characters grow to the extent they become believable people. No Hollywood gloss here, just strong filmmaking.
The cast is wide-ranging for a low budget drama. Jason Connery will always act in his father's shadow, but he handles a complex role well here and I came away liking him a lot. Heather Ann Foster has the toughest role, but she's never less than believable. She fits well into the gritty, grimy surrounds. There are a fair few faces, like the always unpleasant Nicola Stapleton playing another chav character, BRAVEHEART stalwart James Cosmo as a priest, and a scene-stealing Billy Boyd playing a loan shark, about a hundred miles away from his role as Pippin in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Boyd is a really venomous characters who nails the facial tics perfectly. Even Andreas Wisniewski, the familiar bad guy from THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and DIE HARD, turns up as a ghost hunter.
The spiritual stuff is well handled and realistic, and pretty eerie with it. On more than one occasion this film reminded me of GHOSTWATCH, the seminal BBC drama that had viewers scared out of their wits one Halloween. In the end, though, the ghost stuff is secondary to a strong, moving story with genuinely believable characters.