[Ghost Month]
Plot:Writer/Director Danny Draven takes the helm for this supernaturally driven shocker about an unassuming housekeeper drawn into a terrifying world of vengeful apparitions. According to the Chinese calendar, the seventh month of every year marks the time when the restless spirits of the dead break free from the gates of hell to mix among the mortals. During this time, specific rules must be followed to avoid falling prey to the spirits of the damned. When a solitude-seeking housekeeper arrives at the desert home of a superstitious Chinese woman and her devoutly religious aunt, death senses an opportunity to extend its grip into the mortal realm.

Cast:Marina Resa, Shirley To, Akiko Shima, Rick Irvin, Jerod Edington, Kierstin Cunnington, Erica Edd, Anna Lee, Tam Albertson, Buddy Barnett.

My Thoughts:When East meets Western stupidity.

Review:So the hot thing in indie horror now is Chinese Ghost Month. A time where in Chinese superstition, the spirits of the dead roam the earth. "Ghost Month", is yet another attempt to capitalize on that, growing market? I dunno, I'm just taking a guess here. Although there's no proof that any genre fans have been craving more movies about Chinese Ghost Month. But when you have a genre that's most well-known ghost movie in the last 4 years is "The Grudge", well....you've gotta keep throwing those darts until something sticks right?

"Ghost Month" follows a young girl named Alyssa, who is "tired of city life", so she decides to get away from it all for awhile by taking a job out in the country at the mansion of a Chinese woman named Miss Wu. Upon arriving there, Alyssa gets the rules and regs from the somewhat eccentric Miss Wu, and soon learns that her new job just so happens to coincide with the Chinese Ghost Month. The gist here is basically....East meets West. Western stupidity that is. Alyssa looks like the typical suburban white girl, and is even written that way.

Her clueless, wreckless, and nonchalant behavior practically thrusts her right into the laser-sights of the angry, returned spirits, which Miss Wu has tried to appease through certain traditions such as burning incense and money. The ghosts pretty soon start haunting Alyssa, who tells Miss Wu, alerting her of the haunting. But Miss Wu doesn't really seem to care. After all, it's not like the ghosts are trying to kill her, ya know? Just some clueless teenage girl she's hired to clean her house for a little while. I mean she can always be replaced, eh?

Definitely not giving "Ghost Month" any points for creativity or avoiding the cliche moments, but the films supporting cast is definitely something different. For example, the movie has a black character named Blake, who lives down the road from Miss Wu's place, likes horses, and reads feminist novels! It doesn't get anymore diverse than that people! And of course, when Alyssa meets Blake, who is played by Rick Irvin, she instantly connects with him because, well, he reads feminist novels and likes horses!

Of course the movie doesn't make it too easy for these two kids to fall in love. Avoiding the whole uncomfortable "interracial romance" subplot, the writer sprinkles the film with the suspicion and possibility that Blake might be a murderer..."GASP!" Yep, it seems Miss Wu's old housekeeper, an asian girl, mysteriously vanished some years ago. And considering her boyfriend or lover, or whatever at the time was good ole horse-loving, feminist-novel-loving Blake....he was fingered as the most likely culprit in her disappearance.

Of course that could never be proven, so Blake walked, and life went back to normal. But the movie ping pongs between the notion that maybe Blake isn't as innocent as he seems, Miss Wu is up to no good, Miss Wu's mysterious Aunt is really an evil Auntie, or maybe Alyssa's psycho ex-boyfriend, who leaves ranting raving messages constantly on her voicemail, is behind it all? As an elaborate plot to scare Alyssa into getting back together with him! Genius!

Of course for Alyssa's nutty boyfriend Jacob, his temper, and one little scene in the movie where he strangles one of her best friends to death with his bare hands, might complicate his attempts to get back with his ex. Just a little bit anyways. "Ghost Month" is like a Lifetime Channel drama. It offers hardly any scares, hardly any ghosties, hardly anything relevant. It's just another horror movie where some clueless girl doesn't know when the fuck to bail and get the hell out of dodge before she gets konked in the head and locked away in a dungeon by the movies antagonist. E.G....the films sleep-inducing third act.

As a viewer, you just sit there waiting for her to get a clue. That one clue, which she of course never gets because in movies like this, doing the smart thing would be too counter-culture and we can't have smart girls in horror movies. A girl who decides to quit her job after seeing ghosts at night, and hearing strange voices on the cusp of the dreaded Ghost Month? A girl who's smart enough to leave when on top of all of this, she learns that the neighbor down the road might be a murderer?

A girl who's smart enough to split when she finds out her psycho ex is en route to track her down again? Naw, that's crazy talk! There's no good reason why she should leave. After all, Miss Wu is a really nice lady. Except during those times when she's walking around the house all shifty-eyed and stuff. And those moments where she snaps at Alyssa out of the blue, as if she knows more about Ghost Month then she's letting on. I mean you've gotta see this from Alyssa's side of things.

Miss Wu is gonna pay her a fortune for this house-keeping gig. But then again, you can't spend it all if you're dead eh? But what teenager worries about dying? After all....they're invincible! And those trusty horror movie cops will always be around to rescue her if anything goes wrong. You know the ones who always arrive late after the body count is past 11, and the last girl alive looks like she's just gone through a steel cage match with The Undertaker? Yeah, those cops.

I think you get my point about this movie by now. "Ghost Month" is a big mess, a huge mess even. It gladly wallows and wades in a pond of stupid cliches, lame ghosts, and even lamer characters. If this were China, I'm sure the filmmakers would've been locked away for life for such a pitiful attempt at exploiting Chinese culture for the sake of making a few bucks off of an indie horror feature. Don't waste your time with this one.

Positives:Granted, I don't read feminist novels, nor do I like to spend time with horses, but creating a black character that does, brilliant! While this film sucks, I've gotta give the writer props for extreme diversity based on that one character.

Negatives:Way too cliche, the Walmart ghosts were not scary, the lead girl was a putz, and the final act, which should try and atleast end the movie on an up note, crashed and burned like a cheap toy airplane.

Overall:One star out of four.





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