Ghost Game (2024)
Directed by Jill Gevargizian
Written by Adam Cesare 
Starring Kia Dorsey, Zaen Haidar, Michael C. Williams, Emily Bennett, Sam Lukowski, Vienna Maas 
Runtime 1 hour and 26 minutes 
In select theaters October 18 and on demand October 22

by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer 

Trigger warning: brief mention of murder/suicide

“Three rules: don’t get caught, don’t steal anything, and have a plan.” 

Shortly after moving in with his girlfriend Laura (Kia Dorsey), Vin (Zaen Haidar) discovers she’s been keeping a peculiar secret from him. Laura, and her friend Adrian (Michael C. Williams), are players of something known as Ghost Game, an internet challenge which involves breaking into people’s houses and living there undetected, occasionally (and very minorly) messing with them (basically making them think they have ghosts). 

Vin is put off at first, but after Laura explains to him that there is no malicious intent and that the idea is to make “art” of some sort, he comes around and asks her if he can be a part of the next game; to go undetected by the new inhabitants of Halton House, the site of a notorious familial murder suicide. Which is a challenge that quickly turns out to be a lot harder than they thought it would be. 

Jill Gevargizian made her debut with 2020’s The Stylist, a feature length adaptation of her own 2016 short of the same name. In her sophomore feature, she marries haunted house horror with home invasion thriller and provides some interesting, if decidedly mixed results. I like the basic premise of a home invasion thriller with the twist that the home invaders are “phrogging” - the act of secretly living in another person’s home without their knowledge or permission - and filming it for the internet. Add in the bonus that the house in question is possibly haunted (and at least notoriously haunted enough that there’s a documentary made about it, which Vin watches early on in the movie) and the ingredients are there for something potentially very thrilling. 

Where I think the film falls down is that it introduces too many elements alongside this basic premise, and doesn’t quite know how to make them work together. The idea that there’s a whole network of Ghost Game players, with a shadowy figure (“Mr. Watley”) acting as both the ringleader and the best there is (according to Laura who, along with Adrian, appears to consider this more of a lifestyle/piece of performance art than just a thing to do for laughs on the internet) is intriguing, but it’s not fleshed out enough and there is a twist near the end that, because of that underdevelopment, does not feel earned at all. The core relationship between Laura and Vin also doesn’t feel fully realized - and the less said about the fact that Vin finds out about Laura’s involvement in Ghost Game by watching a video of her on her laptop, behind her back the better. 

Similarly, the family which moves into Halton House (who either are really oblivious to the very loud arguments Vin, Laura and Adrian are having IN THEIR WALLS or are just choosing to ignore it) are hinted to have an interesting backstory. The father (Sam Lukowski) turns out to be an author who had previously pulled a crafty scam involving his daughter and UFOs (and then wrote a book about it (charming), which Adrian conveniently has in his backpack for Vin to find), which cost him his previous marriage. This juicy tidbit is unfortunately not given time to be explored. There is also the decidedly uncomfortable wrinkle of the dad being downright nasty to his autistic stepdaughter (Vienna Maas), blaming her when things start taking a turn for the ghostly. 

Overall, there are the bones of two (at least) very interesting movies here. I would quite like to see the version of this movie where the sole focus is the Ghost Game concept in a haunted house, without the plot involving the family. Similarly, I would quite like to see the movie where the family moves into the haunted house, with the kind of baggage the dad brings with him, and watch this develop. As it is, Ghost Game feels too rushed for the amount of ideas it has, and could have definitely used more run time (yes, I am actively asking for a film to be longer for once) to allow things to develop.