Urban Ghost Story

1998
Urban Ghost Story
5.4| 1h22m| en| More Info
Released: 13 July 1998 Released
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Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

After a car accident, Lizzie lies dead on the roadside - slowly she is taken into the light - but is pulled back to earth when she is revived by the doctors. Lizzie feels sure that during the 184 seconds that she lay dead, something latched on to her and came back into her world. The nightmares and visions that follow only crystallize her belief that she should have died in the crash... Then the disturbances start, at first merely tappings and bad smells - but soon the activity escalates. Lizzie seems to be the focus, but according to others, she's just playing games for attention. Only when Kate, her mother, is confronted with inexplicable events does she face the possibility that they may be the victims of a poltergeist infestation

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rixrex Is there a ghost here, or maybe not? That question is left unanswered, and left as a possibility either way. The girl who's the center of the controversy is a kind of teenage version of Candace Hilligoss in Carnival of Souls, and it seems possible that she might meet a similar fate, and indeed nearly does. The movie starts off slowly enough and it is hard to become involved, but when the paranormal investigations begin and the medium (noun here) arrives, by then it's engrossing. A nice examination of the various groups who take advantage of the folks who suffer paranormal activity, the tabloids, the parapsychologists, the séance types, all in it for their own gain and treating the "victims" as objects of study, not as people. If this is what the filmmakers intended to show, they were successful. If they were trying to create tension, they were partly successful, and if they wanted to make it a true Urban Ghost Story, they were barely successful. Not recommended for those who really like chills and scares, there are some, but not enough. But recommended for those who'd like a thoughtful examination of the society around paranormal activity.
azinnes Finally - something different. I've been really disappointed with horror films like Van Helsing, Cabin Fever and to some extent 28 Days Later mainly becausethe stories tend to be very flat and uninteresting. The characters are people we have seen 1000 times before and you know exactly what they are going to do.Also, the stories don't make a lot of sense - there are enough plot holes in 28 Days Later (is there really only one way out of London and it's through atunnel?) and Cabin Fever (not to mention the lousy acting of the latter) to make anyone roll their eyes. However, Jolliffe's film feels real, looks real and takes a bold chance by mixing horror and social realism in a truly frightening way.I love how Jolliffe take us into a world that few Americans ever see - a Scottish slum and make a poltergeist film out of how one might actually happen. Mostpeople who experience this phenomenon are young teenage girls who have alot of stress or trauma in their lives. It is dark, dingy, nasty world filled with harsh characters like a very un-Hobbitish Billy Boyd as a stuttering loan shark who live life with twisted view. A woman gets pregnant at 16 and thinks it's the greatest thing ever because she can go on welfare. That's f-ed up. It's no wonder that the lead girl, who I thought did a fantastic job balancing her emotions betweentrying to be a "cool" teenager and a "scared little girl" is a prime candidate for a poltergeist happening. Refreshingly there's none of these ghosts swirlingaround the room - they are much more subtle and hence much creepierbecause they fray on your nerves instead of blowing their wad in one hugeaction sequence. That's what Spielberg did with Jaws for most of the film.But two things really make Urban Ghost Story stick out. First, is that the story takes the viewpoint of "what would really happen" to people who experiencethis situation. They would go to as many "doctors" to fix the situation. So we see scientists, exorcists and religious figures all trying to put their spin on it - and they all have a valid argument for their belief. But, ultimately we are dealing with something that humans can't defeat with "weapons" - that is what makes thistruly supernatural and scary. Only from the lead girl's confession does all go back to how it should. Humans have to appease the situation - make amends for wrong doing - not try to get away with something through sorcery or statistics. Fantastic. The second thing is that the film from what I have read was made for about $300,000. And yet the filmmakers managed to have a spectacular highfall and a frightening car wreck with a thunderous explosion. They really know how to put every dollar on screen. It really is inspiration for indie filmmakers out there that you can make something great with very little.Go see this film and open your mind. You won't get the same obligatory plotpoints and cardboard cutout characters. You'll get something 100 times better.
barquing Saw this at the Edinburgh Film Festival last year, and enjoyed it a great deal. The 'ghost' element was kept off camera which made the whole story very ambiguous - concentrating more on grief and social conditions than special effects. The acting was terrific (even Jason Connery) and the script literate and well paced. The film was interesting the way it came up with dozens of "explanations" for the events - some supernatural, some scientific - before underlining that the reasons behind such things aren't so important as the psychological effects on the protagonists. I hope it gets a wider distribution soon, as it deserves to be seen by a larger audience. Very impressive - considering its budget, doubly so.
jan onderwater This debut by Jolliffe is not bad, but if suffers from wanting to tell too much at the same time: the guilty conscience of Lizzie, the horror of living in a block of flats, of nosy neighbours, of journalism, social service and so on, and so on. The result is an uneven, detached picture. Heather Ann Foster is very good as Lizzie.