Review of Pay the Ghost (2015) by Jesse O — 09 Jan 2016

I think, if you know me, then you really know why I ended up watching this movie last night. It's not because I found the plot intriguing or the trailer impressed me. I just wanted to watch Nicolas Cage act like a fool.

So, color me surprised, when there was nothing resembling the lunatic Cage in this movie. I'm sure I've said this before, but I used to hate watching this guy, because he was either hamming it up or sounding like he was asleep.

But, as the years have gone by, his real genius has been revealed to me and now he is one of my favorite actors to watch. And not necessarily for positive reasons. If you've seen Vampire's Kiss then you know when I say that when this man decides to go nuts, he can be one of the most bizarrely entertaining actors in the world.

Though, to be fair, I think Vampire's Kiss is the peak of Cage lunacy. He's come close with The Wicker Man remake, but nothing will ever surpass VK in my mind. Don't get me wrong, Cage sounds just as uninspired as ever, but, somehow, and I don't know why, it seemed to me that he put a slightly bit more effort into this movie than he normally would in these low-budget, direct-to-video affairs that he's become known for in his later career.

Maybe I'm the only one. Maybe I'm just paranoid and he actually put in about the same effort, as in barely any, into this movie as any of his other DTV movies. But, honestly speaking, this wasn't as terrible a movie as I was expecting.

Which sounds like it should be positive, but it's not. Because the worse the movie is, the more Cage-isms we get. Not that I'd say that the movie is good or anything, but it was a perfectly acceptable movie, for the most part.

Again, that doesn't mean it's good, but it's not what one would call a horrifyingly bad movie. There's a pretty decent concept here too, one that might actually have added to some legitimately creepy moments if it had stronger writing and a bigger budget.

It's your typical 'woman is burned alive, along with her children, and she decides to haunt them after death' sort of thing, but there's a bit of a Celtic touch, which, honestly, is there in name only.

I wish they would've done more with this, but it was not to be. The third act is a little goofy, but it is what it is. The acting is fine, nothing that anyone should be embarrassed about. It's not the type of movie I would watch again, since it didn't accomplish what I wanted it to accomplish, and I know that that's selfish, sue me, but it was perfectly fine and fairly watchable.

I think there's a good movie underneath it all, it just never got to come out due to certain issues. I wouldn't recommend it, of course, it's not a good movie, but it's something that won't make you want to jump face-first off a 10-story building.