The first thing you’ll notice when you sit down to watch Ghost Note is that the film makers behind this fright flick actually had an original idea (will wonders never cease?). Don’t believe me? Dig this preternatural premise my creeps; Teen with ‘tude Mallory is left to her own devices when her family pisses off to Hawaii leaving her sour ass behind. So what’s a girl to do with all of that free time? Why, go nosing around in the attic and uncovering a family secret…namely that her late grandfather attempted to exorcise a demonically possessed mass murdering jazz musician but instead just imprisoned his spirit within the home decades previous. She also goes jogging…oh, and eventually unleashes that murderous musician to begin his happy-go-lucky homicide spree once again.
Ghost Note does a lot of things right. First of all, the visual aspect and origin of our main monster, Eugene by name, is fun and unique enough to set it apart from most supernatural slasher pictures. This demonic dude is decked out with a face mask adorned with nails and a mess of barbwire around his noggin that gives him a distinctive look and mounds o’ menace. Also, the way our heroes unravel the mystery of Eugene and his connection to Mallory (not to mention his resurrection) is engaging and fun to follow. Finally the technical aspects (in particular the acting) are strong and don’t immediately scream “low budget” which is refreshing (though obviously not a necessity to this revoltin’ reviewers enjoyment of any given flick).
Now ol’ Ghost Note does hit a few flat notes here and there, in particular in regards to it’s pacing. This flick is definitely more of the “figuring out the clues and stopping an evil” type of film rather than a “non-stop orgy of blood-a-flyin’ awesomeness”, so things get slow at times, and Eugene himself doesn’t even make the scene until an hour and twenty minutes into the run time (though there is some possession biz here and there beforehand). And speaking of run time, this movie is an hour and forty one minutes long…it needed a minimum of ten minutes removed to really cook.
Slow bits aside; Ghost Note is a fun fright flick that offers some things you haven’t seen a thousand times over, and the fact that it offers a unique villain is enough for me to recommend it alone!
