“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.

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This is a good, old-fashioned horror film. Or, perhaps more properly, a terror film. (Horror generally contains an element of disgust, which differentiates it from terror) It’s done, like a number of horror films (Creepshow, VHS), as a series of vignettes, bookended and held together by a larger (and often contrived) plot point. Here, the bookend is the story of an architect who is hired to come to a house, and who seems to have a familiarity not only with the house, but with the people gathered there. He explains that he has dreamt of this day, and that something terrible will happen before it is over. Continue reading →