Reviews: Pay the Ghost (2015) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Drama, Mystery
Subgenres: Mystery, Psychological, Drama, Dysfunctional Family, Maniac
Our honest review of Pay the Ghost (2015) breaks down its scares, pacing, and whether this horror movie truly stands the test of time.
Pay the Ghost (2015) is a Canadian-American supernatural thriller horror film that was shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and New York City, New York, USA. Director Uli Edel (The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), Christiane F. (1981), The Mists of Avalon (2001), Curse of the Ring (2004)) did an okay job executing this movie, but it was far from his best. A few things this film contains are Halloween, bad language, Halloween parade, frightening scenes, blood, suggested self-mutilation, pirate costume, supernatural entities, and minor thrills. I gave this movie a five because there was an effort from the director and there is not much he could have done with a script that was a cliche in every sense. Almost the entire film was a cliche, and I applaud the director for making the film watchable, entertaining and applying little characters to differ the movie slightly from others.
Mike Cole (Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas (1995), National Treasure (2004), Moonstruck (1987), Kick-Ass (2010)) is a professor that was seen frantically searching for his son. His son was kidnapped during a Halloween parade about a year ago. Mike and his wife began hearing their child and shortly after, Mike saw his son on a bus passing him. He flagged the bus down and entered the bus to see his son is not there resulting in him leaving the bus to see graffiti on a building saying "pay the ghost," which is something his son had said before he disappeared. Mike puzzled by the writing, entered the building to find a few homeless people residing there. Bizarre supernatural things are happening as Mike’s wife sees their son’s scooter moving by itself; Mike saw three children outside of his window who are burned at the stake and to make matters worse as he turns around, he saw the room he is standing in filled with figures of pale looking kids.
Mike called in a psychic to investigate, and things took a turn for the rest as the psychic did not make it out of their home alive. Mike later saw his wife in their room speaking in the voice of his son saying "She’s coming. I’m afraid" and seconds after discovering his wife cutting herself. They intrude on a Celtic Halloween celebration in the hopes of finding their son but instead learns that three abducted kids are taken every year by a widow who was accused of being a witch and, therefore, was burned with her three children. Watch the movie for the rest of the story about the accused witch and what happens to Mike and his family along with the other abducted kids.
The special effects, makeup, director, cinematographer, cast and music department saved this cliche storyline from being something that could have been rated a one. Overall it was an okay movie to watch, and I do not recommend to horror fans because there was minor fights, scares, and jump scares.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Pay the Ghost Rating Scores
- Our Score: 5/10
- Overall Score: 3.59/10
- IMDB: 5.2/10
- MetaCritic: 2.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 1.0/10
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