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Reel Advice, by Steve Anderson
Ghost Watcher
**
DVD
Directed by
David A. Cross
Written by
David A. Cross
Cast
Jillian Byrnes .... Laura Kove
Marianne Hayden .... Nikki Brandt
Jennifer Servary .... Elizabeth Dean
Kevin Floyd .... Jack Parker
Kevin Quinn .... Malcolm Dixon
Ray Schueler .... Paul Gibson
Dan Poole .... Charlie Wilkers
R
89 mins
Any movie that takes place on Halloween is generally a movie to pay attention to. There's a long legacy of movies that took place on that dark and evil day. Some of them are excellent blockbuster titles that forever lodge themselves in the national pantheon. Others are utter wastes of DVD plastic--just plain garbage.
Ghost Watcher firmly lodges itself in the latter category.
So what we have here is the story of an agoraphobic living in a haunted apartment. Wow...talk about your catch-22's, eh? She lives with a paralyzing, irrational fear of wide open spaces (read: anything outside her apartment), meanwhile, the one SAFE place she's got is spook central!
What does our frightened agoraphobic do? She goes on the internet and orders a load of ghost tracking gear off a "ghost hunter" website. She even goes so far as to enlist the services of the same "ghost hunter" that she brought the crap from. Not that this is any kind of "serious ghost hunter," if such a thing actually exists--the girl's got a "members only" section on her web site that involves her hanging around in skimpy lingerie for thirty bucks a month. Not exactly a promotional bell ringer--I know I'd never select a ghost hunter on the basis of who looks the hottest on their web site.
The ghost hunter, along with the agoraphobic and the agoraphobic's friend / sole link to the outside world that doesn't involve a computer, spend the rest of the movie hunting up the ghost of a man who killed the agoraphobic's family. Of course, it seldom works so simply--frequently the ghost hunters are rebuffed and beaten, bruised and bloodied by the ghost they pursue.
Ghost Watchers has a very tenuous hold on its audience. It is by lengths frightening and confusing, with segments that are truly bone-chilling inserted in the midst of events that have no conceivable explanation. They insert long skeins of exposition in the middle of the movie, and frankly, I have no clue where they're going with this. Their plot requires so much less time than this to complete, that they're just basically running filler material to keep up the runtime. You know, like writers DO sometimes when they can't think of much else to say but they have a deadline and a minimum word count. Kind of like I just did. Right there.
But seriously, Ghost Watcher needed a heavy editing hand. I have to think that it could have been a quality movie if they would have reworked the script to remove the repetitious and confusing segments.
The ending might very well be magnificent, but since I really couldn't follow what happened in the preceding hour and twenty minutes, I can't vouch for the quality of what I just saw.
The special features include director's commentary, Spanish subtitles, Ghost Watcher trailers, deleted scenes, alternate ending, gag watcher (which is really just a blooper reel with a clever name), and trailers for Open Water and Ju-On: The Grudge (the Japanese version, still Sarah Michelle Gellar free).
All in all, Ghost Watcher has its creepy moments, its truly suspenseful bits, and some truly excellent segments. But these are overmastered by the wide expanses of pointless, incomprehensible filler material. This renders Ghost Watcher nearly unwatchable for all but the most patient.
------------------------- Sure it doesn't bite, but the slurps are very wet!
 (From Inverloch. Click on image to see full-sized image.)
Inverloch was one of the finalists (and indeed, one of the winners) in the WCCA (having been nominated for four awards and winning in the Outstanding Fantasy Comic category (tying with OotS)). Seeing as I've recently been expanding on my reading, I decided to see just what made Inverloch so good, and clicked on the link.
I was soon drawn into a world of elves and beastmen (or da'kor as they call themselves) and humans, and a mystery surrounding a silver-haired elvish child who was kidnapped with dark magic. Inverloch has all the trappings of traditional fantasy fiction, but with some truly intriguing twists. Our hero, Acheron, is a da'kor on a quest to help an elvish maiden, and naturally enough he's infatuated with her (which is part of the reason he's offered to help her find a lost love, Kayn'dar). He's unlike other young male da'kor in that he's fairly gentle and peaceful, as well as well-spoken. (I'm afraid the other males can be a bit of ruffians, but part of it is in reaction to the other races, who treat them as beasts because they have horns and are covered with fur.)
As with all fantasy adventures, Acheron is slowly gathering a band of companions to help him, from Varden, a thief who claims that since Acheron caught him trying to pick his pockets, he owes him through an outdated Thieves Code, to Neirenn, a teenage girl who is perhaps the most talented mage her age (though still a student), to Lei'ella, the first to join Acheron's quest.
Lei'ella is perhaps one of the most interesting of the characters (outside of Acheron), in that she is a silver-haired, golden-eyed elf, much like Kayn'dar. However, unlike the majority of elves, she does not have magic; indeed, most of the silver-haired elves lack magic, and some dark secret shame lies there, though what it is we've not yet heard. But it seems central to the quest itself, and no doubt before Acheron finds Kayn'dar, he'll learn just what secrets the elves are hiding.
Acheron searches for more than just Kayn'dar, however. He also hopes to find some news of his father, who vanished many years before. He's heard tiny bits, of his dad and an elf, but nothing more. But while he's been promised the story of what happened to his dad when he returns home, I have a feeling that he'll learn on his own, in this search for Kayn'dar and the dark secret that resulted in his being abducted twelve years prior.
Inverloch is as much a tale of growth as a fantasy story of righting wrongs and saving those in need. Indeed, Acheron is much like many young heroes, in that he doesn't have great skill with a blade or knowledge of magic or the like. Instead, he's fairly naive, going through life trusting others and believing a kind word and acceptance of what he's given. I doubt he will become a great warrior or the like in this quest; he may learn to fight with claw and horn, but mostly I believe him to be the unknowing leader, keeping his friends together.
Perhaps one of the things that most catches my attention about Inverloch is how it draws in the reader and keeps their attention. Yes, the artwork is spectacular, but art and color only draw people in initially. Without something to keep them, readers will wander off again. I've read plenty of comics and just not had my attention kept until recently. But Inverloch is different.
Maybe it's just because it's a fantasy story, and I love those. I first read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings back when I was six, and fantasy has long had a draw to me even stronger than science fiction or other literature. But I think there's something more; there's a spark here of greatness that keeps me interested.
Sarah Ellerton is only in the eleventh chapter (out of 25 planned) of her story here, with 329 pages drawn to date. The comic updates weekly (on Thursdays), but with several pages drawn and colored with each update (which is truly remarkable; each page is fully colored and outside of initial sketches, everything is done on the computer and with a Wacom drawing tablet). And while some people might complain that the story is taking too long or that things are "kinda boring" (as was said in her FAQ), I personally see it as building a proper story and taking time to do something right.
So if instant gratification and quick action are your thing, you might want to move on. But if you like a well-crafted, fleshed-out story, you definitely want to give Inverloch a look. Heck, even those who want quick action and fighting might want to take a look, as the upcoming chapters promise to be more perilous.
Robert A. Howard
------------------------- Glad to see the Lazy Grind Curse isn't long-term...
Recently I wrote up a tongue-in-cheek article about the Curse of the Lazy Grind, and the fact that comics that had left the Grind were seemingly cursed into not updating.
Well, Pimpette & Associates is ignoring the idea of a curse and has started updating again. While Laurel did miss an update last Friday, she's trying to update every Monday and Friday. What's more, the updates are in full color, and look damn good.
So congratulations on overcoming the Lazy Grind Curse, Laurel! I look forward to reading more of your comics.
Robert A. Howard
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