Director: Uli Edel
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sarah Wayne Callies
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 94 minutes
Nicolas Cage is an odd one. His career is littered with extreme highs and lows, and a lot of fake hair. His latest venture is Pay the Ghost and given its lacklustre title, it’s pretty easy to see where this is going.
Cage plays Mike Lawford, a book-smart lecturer who’s hard-working ethic has left him estranged from his young son. Hoping to mend the gap that is appearing between them he treats his son to a trip to the fare on Halloween night. Whilst buying an ice-cream his son vanishes, his last words being – ‘can we pay the ghost?’ Flash forward to almost a year later and Mike starts to receive visions of his missing child after which he starts to uncover the legend of ‘paying the ghost’.
It isn’t that Pay the Ghost is bad, it just doesn’t really offer anything of interest. The story is dull, formulaic and just fails to engage the viewer for the full run time. Happily it’s a better attempt at horror then the last one that Cage was a part of (the ill-fated Wicker Man remake) with not a bee in sight, but that isn’t saying much.
The ‘scares’ are few, very few, and far between. In a climate of films such as Insidious and Paranormal Activity, as well as a multitude of other straight to DVD horrors, Pay the Ghost is going to struggle to get itself noticed. Granted, the big name star on the cover might draw some in, but those people are going to be bitterly disappointed.
Pay the Ghost is the perfect Halloween treat for those scaredy-cats who jump at their own shadow, as well as those with a weak stomach. Nic Cage obsessives might be able to find something to like, but it’s really rather dull. Another miss for the Mr Cage pile.
Pay the Ghost arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD on 26th October.
