Review of Pay the Ghost (2015) by Thequietgamer — 19 May 2016

Another one of those average horror films lacking in imagination and fright, yet is somehow mindlessly watchable despite how boring everything is. It's attempts at scare are little more than jump scares punctuated by loud, painful screeches. No seriously, they actually do cause physical pain.

Weirdly enough these moments occur when nothing scary is happening onscreen. It's not like anything scary happens in the first place, but it's just so odd how the sound is handled. "Oh hey look something weird is going on. Better make sure the audience is aware. They've probably drifted off by now so let's get their attention with a loud burst of screechy music." We get one seen where Nicolas Cage is chasing a bus and director decided to have some really eerie music playing while this is happening. Why? I get that he's seeing a vision of his missing son, but there's actually scary or even remotely creepy about it.

That's not where the weirdness of the movie ends. There are plenty of awkward choices made throughout. For example the middle portion of the movie suffers from some sort of identity crisis. It goes for the haunted house angle, moves onto some paranormal investigation, and even has a brief stint with possession all before settling on one of those ghost revenge stories where the angry specter punishes people who actually had nothing to do with what made them mad in the first place. At which point it starts to rip-off Insidious.

As always with Nicolas Cage films one of the biggest talking points about it is the star himself. His performance here really shows off how basic his acting skills are. When he's not losing his mind onscreen Nicolas Cage is merely suitable in his roles. He gets the job done, but don't expect anything amazing. Pay the Ghost is no different. As a matter of fact his laidback, casually indifferent performance is so at odds with the material at times it's hard not to laugh. This is supposed to be a man desperately looking for his missing son, but Cage is just so darn calm. Sarah Wayne Callies on the other hand is quite good.

To be honest the movie itself is a lot like Cage's performance. It's basic, gets the job done, but is far from anything to get excited over. There's a lot of weirdness to the movie. Unfortunately not even that can elevate Pay the Ghost to anything more than mediocre. If you really need to watch a horror film and have somehow exhausted the plethora of better options out there, then by all means give Pay the Ghost a watch. It won't really entertain or scare you, but at least it won't completely bore you and isn't as mind-numbingly awful as some of the options out there. Still though, you might just be better off popping in a comedy or something. I doubt even hardcore Nicolas Cage fans can get much out of this. Especially since his performance is missing the sanity of other roles that gained him these fans in the first place.