Review: Ghost in the Graveyard

Director: Charlie Comparetto

Screenplay: Charlie Comparetto

Year: 2019

“Ghost in the Graveyard” is inspired by the game with the same name, that popular game we all played as kids. I hope that you got the sarcasm in the comment because I had no idea of the existence of this game until watching this movie. I did find a good similarity between my experience with the game and the movie and is that I could live perfectly fine without either in my life. 

In “Ghost in the Graveyard” we follow Sally, who is frequently visited by the ghost of her sister, who died tragically while she was still a child. After some time out, Sally returns to the town where she grew up and tries to carry a normal life, but the supernatural events around her don’t allow it. This leads her to investigate details about her past and the town’s past and discovers some of the hidden things that take place there.

Seldom I find myself in a situation in which it’s hard for me to find positive elements from a movie to talk about and this is one of such situations. “Ghost in the Graveyard” fails in everything it pretends to do and makes it impossible for the watcher to be interested in the story. Only the musical composition, that is a hybrid between the music found in the “Harry Potter” saga and “Beetlejuice” and some artistic shots are enjoyable in this movie.

The worst of the movie by far is the script of also director Charlie Comparetto in his debut in both roles. Dialogues are frustratingly bad and the story is convoluted, putting many things in it without appropriately establishing them and even worse, not answering then in a satisfying way. The plot, which lacks interest, feels like many pieces of scenes that the director thought would be interesting put together without a logic sequence, achieving an evident disparity among what it tries to tell and what it ends up telling.

Sometimes good acting can save a bad script, but in this movie, the contrary happens. The cast starring  Kelli Berglund, Jake Busey (“Stranger Things”), and Olivia Larsen (“The Last Halloween”) does such a bad job in the interpretations that don’t allow the viewer to get into the story or care about the characters. This ends up accentuating the issues in the script and harming, even more, the quality of the movie.

Another important problem that “Ghost in the Graveyard” shows is the pacing, which is greatly affected by the problems with the script. Especially when a movie has a limited budget it ends up giving more weight to the plot and how its told than to the visuals, but when it’s not well-narrated, its a recipe for disaster. During the initial scenes the movie shows some potential, but quickly loses steam and never manages to get back up.

“Ghost in the Graveyard” does too many things wrong to be able to get the viewer’s attention and many will not watch it fully. From the disastrous script to the awful acting, very little can be saved from this movie and it’s not enough to make the experience a bit more pleasant. Bad debut for director and screenwriter Comparetto, who in this movie doesn’t shine for its skills in either role.