Pay the Ghost (2015) - Review

This post will conclude the reviewing of movies that my wife and I watched while we were out of town some weeks ago (I am posting somewhat in advance to avoid as many conflicts with classes as possible). I'm thankful to have a supportive partner that is willing to suffer alongside me. Coincidentally, both Knowing and Pay the Ghost see Nicolas Cage defy fate and the natural order as a mild-mannered professor - a fact that I have become ignorant over the years. I have seen both movies before, but did not make the connection until his profession was made to be a plot point in both works. This is concerning for me as an aspiring instructor in my field of study (thankfully not film-related) - that I will take elements of either film's eccentric professors and incorporate them into my own teaching style. This is in jest, because I want to have a long and rewarding lecturing career. The moment I start chasing ghosts or bible-code inspired documents is the moment that I know that I've truly lost it and might be in a similarly contrived movie.

Pay the Ghost is a 2015 supernatural/thriller movie starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Wayne Callies as Mike and Kristen Lawford, two parents that navigate their lives after their child, Charlie, is abducted a year prior during a Halloween festival. The two parents start to consider and believe that the cause of Charlie's disappearance is supernatural as increasingly eerie circumstances occur around them. 

I believe that there are strong elements to this movie, but I don't think that the supernatural elements are among those. This is a particularly big slight against the movie because the horror/suspense is the primary genre. The drama elements I found were convincing: the elements of trauma and grief that the Lawford family, as well as a small cast of supporting characters, deal with throughout the movie. The supernatural happenings that the family must navigate seem almost shoved into the story of the movie to propel the characters to act to find their child, which Cage has already been incredibly committed to for his past year. I consider horror, especially anything with supernatural aspects, to be driven by suspense - and Pay the Ghost does not deliver on suspense. Nearly all scenes that are supposed to be driven by tension fail to do so due to telegraphed elements of the production of the movie in particular. The frame rate drops consistently, meaning that the already slow action starts to chug, as a greenish tint is applied to the screen when the characters intersect with the spiritual realm. That one decision, and the other an artifact of the editing process, diffuse any sort of anxiety and bring about a mild annoyance to the experience I wanted to have watching this movie. 

Pay the Ghost sets up some interesting character moments, but fails to deliver on the premise that it posits to the audience. The failure to deliver on any of its horror aspects, as well as bringing into existence a character that insist that they are ignorant of necessary exposition while at the same time being extremely knowledgeable about said required information to bring the characters to the movie's climax makes it incredibly frustrating to watch. The sins of the mechanical parts of the movie condemn the human aspect, and wash out any good that this movie has to offer to the audience.