“The mind sees what it wants to see.”

So says a character in Ghost Stories, an anthology piece that is, at times, frightening, disorienting, funny,and sad. Unlike many other horror anthology films, however, this one benefits from a setup that does more than serve as an introduction to the individual stories. Andy Nyman plays Professor Goodman, who has devoted his life to debunking psychics and mediums who prey on the bereaved. One day he gets an audiotape from someone who claims to be Goodman’s idol, another famous skeptic. The only problem is, everyone believes he’s long dead. Regardless, Goodman agrees to a meeting, where he is handed three case files in an envelope marked “explain these.” It’s no surprise that those cases are the three vignettes of the film,but it’s the Goodman story that not only ties the tales together but serves as a marker of Goodman’s increasingly shaky faith in his convictions.

The first case is that of Tony Matthews, a surly former night watchman, who tells Goodman of the night he spent in an abandoned sanitarium.Long scratches on a generator that keeps getting unplugged, and a moving coffee mug seem tame and familiar in the realm of the paranormal, but that familiarity breeds dread, for we know the worst is yet to come. As Matthews patrols the darkened halls, lit only by a flashlight beam, we are on edge, waiting.

Goodman next meets Simon Rifkind (Alex Lawther, in an outstanding performance), a young man who has locked himself in his room at his parents’ house and surrounded himself with walls filled with demonic artwork. Simon’s encounter is a slightly underwhelming tale of an accident on the road, in which Simon gets lost and ends up hitting a person with his car. Maybe.

“Why is it always the last key that unlocks everything?”

-Mike Priddle

 Last on the list is Mike Priddle, played by Martin Freeman. Mike is a wealthy businessman who says he never believed in evil, until the night his pregnant wife went to the hospital, leaving him alone in the house…and he began to think that he wasn’t.

 The stories are short (almost too short), and the ground they cover is familiar; all the usual suspects are here—bad cell phone coverage, shadowy figures, etc. But the scares come from some really well-done film-making; even when you think you know what’s coming, it manages to surprise you. And then there’s the ending.

The coda to the three stories is unusual, to say the least, and one I can’t say much about without ruining things for you. But what I can say is that once you get over the WTF?? of it all, it’s worth the journey. It elevates the film and leaves you wanting to watch it all over again. As Freeman’s Mike Priddle says, “why is it always the last key that unlocks everything?”

IMDB gives it a 6.4. That seems about right to me. (running time 1:38)