Ghost Stories
Andy Nyman and The League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson expand their hit play Ghost Stories into a spooky anthology film
Horror anthologies are tricky beasts. For every terrifying tale in a trilogy of terror, there’s often a dud or two to spoil the cumulative experience. Less in the vein of V/H/S and more in the spirit(s) of Dead of Night, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s Ghost Stories bucks the usual curse in maintaining solid scares throughout.
It presents three Britain-set supernatural tales, with a pragmatic academic (Nyman) acting as our guide via a wraparound plot device. A debunker of myths and fraudulent psychics, he’s assigned a mission to solve three unexplainable hauntings. Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse and Alex Lawther are his tragic interviewees and stars of the spooky flashbacks, which explore various personal demons alongside apparent literal ones.
Ghost Stories is an expansion of Dyson and Nyman’s internationally successful theatre production, but the evocative and often bewildering use of locations prevents things from ever feeling stagey. In particular, the turn Nyman’s wraparound story takes – which really lifts the film up a level – makes one unfamiliar with the play wonder how this ever worked outside of cinema. [Josh Slater-Williams]
Released by Lionsgate