Christopher Landon He made a name for himself in Hollywood thanks to the success of ‘Happy Death Day’, a funny horror comedy with time travel that was very well received by the public. Then he went a little further with his enjoyable sequel and he also got it right shortly after with the nice ‘This body feels like death’. None of the three were great movies, but they were first-class pastimes in which Landon demonstrated a remarkable capacity for mixing humor and horror.
Thus, ‘A ghost is loose in the house’ It was one of the Netflix movies for this 2023 that I was looking forward to the most, but at the moment of truth it has been another disappointment on the platform. Here Landon, who is in charge of both writing and directing, takes a much more familiar approach and the end result is rather understated.
Wants to be too many things at once
From the first moment it is clear that the touch of terror is going to be reduced to a minimum in ‘A ghost is loose in the house’, since its story revolves around a couple who buy a new house in which one of their children find a ghost Soon an unexpected friendship arises between them and everything explodes when the media finds out about their existence.
With that approach, ‘A ghost is loose in the house’ could have gone in many directions, and precisely one of the problems with the film is that that is what it does. Instead of opting for a more or less clear path, Landon overstretches the story by lurching, since as soon as he opts for a more intimate and dramatic moment, suddenly he takes the path of excess and appears Jennifer Coolidge to animate the roost.
This means that what initially arouses some sympathy, especially with the first encounter with the ghost, ends up losing the public’s interest. There it is true that david harbor (the unforgettable Hopper from ‘Stranger Things’) does everything he can to avoid it, since his silent performance is the luckiest part of the show, but of course, he can only go so far, especially if the movie then wastes the most of it. other ingredients you have at your disposal. We have a good example with the presence of Tig NotaroSeeing her here, no one would say that she is a fairly popular comedian.
A disappointment
What happens here is the same as in many other original Netflix movies: a more or less striking cast, a premise with plenty of possibilities, and a generous budget with the aim of those responsible for executing their vision of the story so that it can later be a indecisive hodgepodge in which the heavy investment made is not even noticeable –Has this seriously cost 75 million dollars?– and that lasts too long.
Here it is as if Landon had jotted down a series of ideas, put them together in a script and never bothered to consider how the mix fit together. I know it’s going to sound bad to ask Netflix for something more heavy-handed to channel the directors’ vision, but there are already too many films that end up provoking feelings of frustration because it is never clear what those responsible want to achieve.
In the case of ‘A ghost is loose in the house’, it appears that the main objective ends up being to offer a fantastic film family cut, but for this, a chaos of tone is reached, perhaps not at the level of ‘El Hormiguero’, but little achieved. For example, what does that sinister moment in which the friendly ghost played by Harbor gives the medium played by Coolidge a hard time?
It is true that Landon straightens the course a bit in the final stretch, which is when he has no choice but to put all the cards on the table and solve that mystery that until then he had left quite aside, but it’s too late. It is of little use to become somewhat more tender and appeal to emotions with which any viewer can feel more identified if by then you are already tired and simply want to move on to something else.
So is it worth it or not?
I quite like the touch that Harbor gives to a much more complicated character than it seems, but beyond that there is very little to scratch in a film that a priori had everything to be one of the best on Netflix in 2023 already. The moment of truth is just another disappointment of the platform. Yes indeed, I don’t want to say it’s horrible either, but it’s pretty lazy.
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