The Ghoul (2016) User Reviews

Looper.

[js-66130 · 7/10 · 11 August 2017]

Best pay close attention here, as not all is as it seems.

Twisty movies can be god fun, but as is the case with "The Ghoul", they can be quite unsettling. What starts out as a standard police drama slowly melts into an endless, dark, psychological journey, where everything is gradually turned upside down.

Not an easy watch, this: a dreamy, hallucinatory, moebius strip thriller with an agonizing performance from the spiralling lead (the excellent Tom Meeton). Filmed in dark, bleak confines, "The Ghoul" works, not inspite of it's micro budget, but because of it - relying on claustrophobic interaction from the players.

Fans of linear cinema need not apply, but those wishing for a jarring, thought-provoking experience will be rewarded.

Taxi Driver on a Lost Highway

[rapid_randy · 7/10 · 10 September 2017]

"The Ghoul" is not a horror movie or even one that will make much sense to the majority of viewers. If you happen to enjoy mind-bending stories with no true finish line, this is your movie. David Lynch fans will rejoice. It's quite the experience and will leave you disoriented, thinking you may have taken LSD prior to watching. It's enjoyable if you know what's in store so hopefully this review has been of some help.

Slow but clever

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 3 January 2018]

This is not a horror film but a complex and dark psychological thriller about a policeman investigating a double murder - or is it all in his imagination? Some reviewers have complained that it is boring but I found it to be a slow yet riveting burn, all the way to it's clever finale. It is well acted & liked the many great shots of London. Certainly not to everybody's taste but to deride this as rubbish is unfair & ignorant.

A Mind Bender

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 7 September 2017]

A homicide detective (Tom Meeten) goes undercover as a patient to investigate a psychotherapist he believes is linked to a strange double murder. As his therapy sessions continue the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur.

Strangely, for a film this dark, the casting came from comedians who were working at the Edinburgh Festival. Their skits led to "The Baron" (2013), a comedic short film made for "a few hundred quid". This brought together Gareth Tunley and writer-actor Tom Meeten, as well as bringing in composer Waen Shepherd and producer Jack Healy Guttmann. It would be no exaggeration to say that "The Baron" was the test run for "The Ghoul", despite them having nothing in common thematically. Those involved believed that if Christopher Nolan could make "Following" with no budget, they could pull it off, too.

From the get-go, Waen Shepherd's score is reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti; interestingly, Catherine Bray thinks the film is "scary in the manner of David Lynch films, with the chills coming from a nightmarish repurposing of the mundane or suburban", so perhaps the score is intentional. Of course, Shepherd does much more than that -- he has provided just about every genre of music (60s pop to reggae) to the soundtrack.

The plot is defined as a cinematic Möbius strip by writer/director Gareth Tunley. This almost gives too much away, but at the same time is really at the heart of the film. The most interesting scene is the one where the various objects in the doctor's office are described: the mobius strip, the ouroboros (infinity snake), and so on... we are made quite aware of how important this is.

Let's look at the critics. Gareth Jones praises the film, with his only concern being that "it can occasionally find itself bogged down by its overly melancholy presentation and measured pacing". This is fair, though probably unavoidable. Bray compares the film favorably to Lynch's "Lost Highway", though she has concerns that the film "isn't the midnight horror romp its title may suggest", and this may cause it to connect poorly with audience expectations. True, the title may be misleading, but it has its own importance, too.

Stephen Dalton thinks the picture "feels a little too slight and cryptic to make any serious headway with mainstream genre fans... never quite delivers on its mind-bending promise." Yet, "Tunley confirms his mastery of macabre moods here. Now he needs a bigger budget and a broader canvas." Mainstream or not, it fits in well alongside films like "Timecrimes" that have us questioning the linear story-telling.

Peter Bradshaw may be the harshest critic, saying the movie "feels like a film-school project" that is "heartsinkingly pointless" and "takes us on a journey to nowhere." Not only is Bradshaw the most harsh, but the most off-base. While he may not be wrong, strictly speaking, the "pointlessness" is precisely the point! The film never sets up to tie everything up with a ribbon, and this may be its greatest strength: viewers are well-served to watch it twice or more to deepen comprehension.

Though Arrow Video specializes in bringing forgotten gems back to life, they do just as great of a job when they are working with contemporary titles like "The Ghoul". On their Blu-ray release, we get the filmmakers' commentary, interviews with most of the cast and crew (which are very insightful), and even "The Baron", the short film by Gareth Tunley, starring Tom Meeten and Steve Oram.

Beautiful but Frustrating, and Ultimately Fruitless

[brandon_veracka · 6/10 · 1 April 2019]

I 'get' what this film tries to do, I just don't like it. Someone was quoted as saying it could stand alongside David Lynch's 'Lost Highway', but I disagree. The term 'Lovecraftian' has been used many times in recent years to describe many films, but few truly are. 'The Ghoul' is most definitely Lovecraftian, and it has some excellent aspects; the acting is solid, as is the cinematography. The story leaves a lot to be desired however, and as I mentioned, I 'get' it, but I don't like it.

This film is disjointed and awkward in its flow, which was likely intentional, however it doesn't serve the film. In the end it left much to be desired. In the beginning you're loving it, in the middle you're excited to see where it's going, but by the last bit you're saying, "This can't really be it, can it?!" All in all, this film absolutely has the feel and look of a Lynch-made masterpiece, but almost none of the substance and (dare I say) the dazzle of one such as 'Lost Highway' - to which it's been compared.

On the one hand, I loved (really loved) how it portrays a depressed man in such a gritty and realistic way. But on the other hand, it felt lacking and failed to climax into anything that's anywhere near greatness. Not a complete waste of time, and it may very well be enjoyed by some, but for me this fell far short of my initial expectations which the opening scenes gave rise to - 6 out of 10.

Slow, Boring & Ends With Wasted Potential

[umimelectric · 4/10 · 17 October 2017]

Dark and confusing story dives into the multidimensional territory of time loops; peppered with a bit of Fight Club & a dash of Taxi Driver. Don't let the title fool you, certainly not horror.

I had never heard of this film before and it was rated average-like so I watched it at home & I can't say it was time wasted (I like movies) but I can't sing its praises either. At one point midway through I was so bored that I did consider turning it off but I knew the ending had something in store that, even if not amazing, I felt I should stay on for.

The ending will disorient viewers, including myself, and it's quite good. Unfortunately for the ending, the bulk of the rest of the story leading up to it borders on slow torture. A lot of films are great until the final act ruins them; this one is the opposite, with a climax that would have done better attached to a different project.

A for effort. 4/10 for my tastes.

Strange Yet Intriguing

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 6/10 · 5 October 2017]

I had no idea what to expect when I put this movie in to watch. I'd heard nothing about it, found little online and had watched the trailer getting an idea of what was to come but not quite. The end result was mixed.

The film begins with the investigation of a double murder in a London home where detective Chris has been called on to the case. Deciphering clues and after some assists from an old girlfriend, Chris finds that there is a connection to a psychoanalyst. He goes undercover as a patient with the woman to see if he can access more information.

And that's where things begin to go a bit off kilter. As the movie progresses forward we as the viewers suddenly find that perhaps what we saw at first was not reality at all. Instead, we find that Chris may indeed be a patient of the psychoanalyst but not in an undercover capacity. Instead, perhaps the entire scenario of his being a police detective is the delusion that he as a patient is suffering from.

As the story twists in that direction we learn more about Chris. We find that he suffers from a deep form of depression that is compounded with other events that take place as the film moves on. As the detective he was trying to find out information on another patient named Coulson. The two eventually meet and form a friendship. But Coulson soon begins to become agitated, telling Chris not to trust the psychoanalyst and predicting she will find a reason to send him on to another.

When she does exactly that, Chris begins to wonder if Coulson is correct in his conspiracy theories concerning both the new and the old psychoanalysts. More clues come, or at least through the eyes of Chris, that make him ponder everything that is going on around him. As things he takes comfort in suddenly begin to change, he begins to wonder of the improvement he was showing was staged or if he is indeed losing his sanity. The last segment will make the viewer wonder the same about their own view of what's going on.

The movie is a dark film to say the least but interesting at moments. On the whole there are some points that will feel like they drag on too long or go nowhere. Still, it at least takes chances and goes places we've most likely never gone before. It's original and there is something to be said about that. The acting is well done but the story is the centerpiece here.

Arrow Video has done their usual solid job on this one offering a well done presentation. Extras include interviews with the cast and crew, the film makers commentary track, THE BARON a short film by director Gareth Tunley and the original theatrical trailer. This is not an Arrow release of a classic film but something new. It's worth taking a look at but for me I can't recommend adding it to your collection. That will depend on your own tastes.

More Planted Glowing Ratings on IMDb

[bmco-247-721025 · 1/10 · 4 October 2017]

Researching this film before watching it, unfortunately convinced me it would be worthwhile, however, it's clear now that I was taken in by IMDb reviews that were planted to give the movie an overall favorable rating. My instinct after the first 15 minutes was to turn it off, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt since many British independent films do tend to start slow and build to a thoughtful and meaningful result.

Without giving anything away, do yourself a favor and look up the definition for a Mobius strip and then imagine a very abstract story revolving around that meaning with a multitude of loose ends that are never explained and you'll have saved yourself nearly an hour and a half of boredom and frustration.

One big puzzle, with a few pieces missing

[Indyrod · 6/10 · 17 November 2017]

Just watched a bizarre mind bending thriller "The Ghoul", that is not a horror film, although by the title, you might think so. This movie is just as much reality in the non linear plot, as it is just a fantasy going on in the lead character's mind. Don't expect me to explain it, one reason, many have compared it to David Lynch's "The Lost Highway", which I don't agree. I was able to follow it, if that is possible, by figuring what is really going on, and what is just a figment of the lead character's mind. That's not easy, but I like the very bizarre twists and turns the movie takes, to only end up where it started, but with many questions answered. You have to stay with it, and pay very close attention to the script as it moves along. I don't know if I would recommend it, it's like putting together a big puzzle, with a few pieces missing, that you eventually find laying on the floor somewhere.

Lack luster

[davidsaid · 5/10 · 9 September 2017]

Sorry folks, its great to do a project like this film but it kind of falls down flat. I believe a good vision of depression or psychosis must begin by showing us the character in a balanced frame of mind. This should help us perceive what they will eventually lose, giving us a greater understanding of their slow/fast decline from reality into somewhat darker territories. Without that a film like this is just an abstract nightmare for a character we have little connection to. As a consequence of this the film feels a little too abstract but without the depth to carry that abstraction. I like the synopsis, it could be a fine film but it needs some work.

Perhaps what would offer this film a better reaction is if it were presented in a different manner. I would do a serious edit, make it into a half hour short and issue it as a piece of art film rather than a feature.

full of provocative thoughts and human insights but a lot is expected of the viewer and it is easy to get left behind

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 28 February 2019]

Seems to me the most frequent complaint about this film is that it is 'slow and boring' and the most positive that it is like Mulholland Drive. The latter comparison, is falsely made, I guess, because the film is complicated and the former remark simply because this tends to be the fallback option if there are not enough explosions. If anything the film moves too fast for its own good. The dialogue is excellent, full of provocative thoughts and human insights but a lot is expected of the viewer and it is easy to get left behind. The therapy sessions should be an opportunity for things to slow down and for us to get our bearings and sort out what is real or not to us and perhaps more pertinently what is real or not to the characters. But nothing is as simple as it appears here and even the sessions seem to take us into even darker areas. Excellent, but not the easiest film to follow because it does not set out a simple path. For those for whom that sounds 'boring', I guess will find it boring. Not sure what that proves though.

Brooding London noir that loses its own way.

[mwilson1976 · 6/10 · 10 November 2019]

Chris (Tom Meeten) is a homicide detective called to London and shown round the scene of a strange double murder by a colleague, he then goes undercover as a patient to investigate a psychotherapist he believes is linked to the case. As his therapy sessions continue, the line between fantasy and reality begin to blur. A perennial title in British horror cinema (a Boris Karloff film from 1933 and a Peter Cushing film from 1975) The Ghoul is an exercise in fragmented London noir knowingly appropriated by writer-director Gareth Tunley. The film is initially interesting but ultimately pointless, as this brooding Brit indie (produced by director Ben Wheatley) takes us on a journey to nowhere and eventually leads us back to where we started without the audience gaining or learning anything very much along the way.

It's a head scratcher

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 8 October 2017]

PLOT SPOILER REVIEW Chris (Tom Meeten) is investigating an odd murder pretending to be a patient to get information about another patient. However the lines become blurred. Chris believes he is the patient who day dreams about being a cop. A friend blurs things about midpoint claiming Chris is really a cop and the psychologists are attempting to make him think he is a normal guy. For the audience, these lines are smartly blurred and we don't know the truth until the end....I think.

The problem with the film, in spite of it being well done, is that it is slow and boring with pathetic characters all around. The film put me to sleep.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Psychological Thriller, Not HORROR, Done Fairly Well.

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 7/10 · 11 January 2021]

Okay I was boggled by this one at the end. It surprised me. I thought for sure the end would be more conclusive, but it was sorta open ended. Giving to me anyway a lot of room for the viewer to guess exactly what just happened. This one had me predicting all kinds of possible endings and none of them really were satisfied.

I liked the script. The jokes were pretty good for a UK movie. +1 Star

I liked the way the movie was done. +1 Star

This one gets a 7/10

Stylish Psycho Thriller That Goes Nowhere.

[jburtonprod-802-759029 · 6/10 · 28 August 2018]

I watched this movie and right up to the end I was wondering why all the bad reviews. Then the movie stopped. It just stopped. There's not even a 'sense of an ending'.

When you do this kind of borderline surreal thriller you have to have a strong sense of story lest everything falls apart. The writer-director Gareth Tunley got the directing part right but not the writing part.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in here about Moebius strips, infinity, mind control. drug use, isolation and so on but it's never channeled into a cohesive statement or plot line. The main character, Chris, NEVER seems a like a cop on a case. He seems like a 'clinically depressed' borderline personality who is barely holding on. There's no descent in madness. He seems very troubled from the beginning.

We are taken far a field and when that happens you are always looking for something to tie it all together. The closest thing that comes to that here is showing Chris driving away from a crime he seems to have committed, seeming to be going far away from London only to find that he is driving right back into the city. This is a hearkening back to the psychologist's story of an ant on a Moebius Strip.

An engaging movie that could've been much better with more time spent on the writing.

Not a clue

[pacman-81 · 2/10 · 6 March 2020]

Maybe I'm thicker than Gemma Collins thighs here but I have no idea what I've just watched. Story.....I'm not sure there was one but if there was I missed it. The actors just looked Like they were taking the piss with direction non existent. Avoid at all costs

Slow, arty, without interest

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 10 December 2017]

THE GHOUL is one of those low rent thrillers that starts out as a proper movie - a police procedural, no less - before heading off in an entirely different direction. The first scene, which takes place at an unusual crime scene, had my attention from the start, but the film subsequently descends into endless psychological shenanigans as the main character undergoes a mental breakdown of sorts and ends up living in a hallucinatory world. It's cheap and arty, lacking in concrete detail and proper performances, with the main character a bit of a drag and the actor doing very little to make him the least bit sympathetic.

Utterly boring drivel.

[rocknrelics · 2/10 · 26 October 2019]

I should have learnt by now, anything that has Ben Wheatley's name attached to it isn't going to be great, and this is no exception. It comes over like a student project, and doesn't hold the attention at all. Seems like there are a lot of fake reviews about this one. Avoid.

A policeman feigns mental illness to track down a double-killer

[ian-bell92 · 10/10 · 1 November 2017]

Gareth Tunley draws top-notch performances from a distinguished cast, while spinning a story about mental illness into the hunt for a double-killer. How he managed it on what is obviously a small budget I have no idea. The word here is quality, from everyone involved.

Tom Meeton is a crumpled detective landed with trying to find a double-murderer. A couple have been shot in their own home, but appear to have run towards their assailant, even when shot several times? Why would they do that? Meeton's flawed detective Chris goes undercover to try and find the chief suspect. But as Chris gives a psychiatrist a cover story, only to secretly sift files in her office as he looks for leads, he starts to question his own role in the case. He professes to be an unemployed man who has no life, and when we see him marooned in a poky flat, being brought bottles of vodka by his partner/best friend it seems his cover story is being played by the book.

But as his search for the killer takes him to a second doctor, it appears there may be more than one murderer in this beguiling journey into our troubled anti-hero's psyche. This is a low-budget film, but one with considerable talent behind it. The haunting soundtrack by Waen Shepherd is almost a character in its own right, and as Chris struggles to keep his own sanity he appears to be becoming the cover story he has created for the purpose of trapping the killer. Or as an inquisitive party-goer suggests, maybe he is just an ordinary lost man, and the shrinks have made him think he really is a policeman.

As he draws closer to his main suspect called Coulson, his quarry turns the tables by suggesting the two shrinks, Drs Fisher and Morland are in fact the guilty parties here, and they are out to steal the mind of an unsuspecting patient as an exercise in psychological body-snatching? Is Coulson mad, or has he in fact stumbled upon the real culprit/s? There are no easy answers to this haunting mystery, but the performance by Meeton in the lead role is one that will stay with you long after the credits, while the rest of the cast never strike a false note.

It would be good for once, just once, if the UK's so-called marketeers would pull their fingers out of their backsides and put some muscle into promoting a minor gem like this instead of throwing their weight behind yet another James Bond blockbuster made for $200m. Just a thought, people, just a thought. Go see it. It's well worth the effort.

Total waste of time

[jordan2240 · 1/10 · 9 January 2020]

I'd started watching this on netflix recently only to realize I had already started it previously but apparently lost interest. Wasn't sure why I'd stopped watching, so this time, kept it running all the way through. Turns out my initial instinct was correct. Absolutely one of the worst movies I've seen. Nothing of any interest happens, and I have no idea what the ending was all about. Perhaps I'm just not intelligent enough for it - or maybe it thinks it's a lot more clever than it is. Either way, definitely not my cup of tea.

Gangstalking questionare? Boring attempt at thought provoking cinema

[lukeshulver · 1/10 · 20 February 2018]

This movie asks many questions and leaves ample time, long tedious boring pauses, for you to ponder your own responses. The type of drivel propaganda worthy of funding from surveillance apparatus and research teams. A must watch if you are studying psychology at University, otherwise give it a miss. Destined for a curated Netflix list of psychological bafflement. Yawn.

Could have been so much more

[mikejonesundisputed · 4/10 · 22 November 2017]

This movie could have been so much more and it's a shame there were not just a few changes which would have changed this from a slightly below-average offering to a truly great and well-meaning film.

The plot revolves around a detective who is suffering from severe depression and enters psychiatric treatment to try and solve a murder case.

As the story progresses it's hard to say whether the lead character is indeed a policeman or simply a very mentally ill man who suffers delusions.

The main criticism for me is a complete lack of action during most of the movie. This means the plot is wholly bulked by verbal exchanges and little else. I'll also say a lot of the story is fairly samey and there's no real change of pace at any point.

The movie is shot in a gritty way and the acting is good as it doesn't (like a lot of modern acting) feel forced and fake.

An hour in and I was thinking this could be something special but overall the problems mentioned above as well as a confusing ending left me unsatisfied.

Psychological Horror, Chaos Magick, Time Loops.

[Pairic · 8/10 · 3 November 2018]

The Ghoul (2017): A very British Horror Film bringing to mind both Kill List and A Dark Ritual among other recent works. Chris (Tom Meeten), an ex-cop is recruited by a detective Jim (Dan Skinner) and profiler Kathleen (Alice Lowe) to help investigate the murder of two psychotherapists. The main suspect is Coulson (Rufus Jones), their landlord; Chris moves to London and goes undercover to trail him. Finding that Coulson has himself gone into psychotherapy after the incident, Chris feigns depression and is referred to Coulson's psychotherapist, Dr Fisher (Niamh Cusack).

The narrative then takes a strange twist as Chris tells Fisher that he is unemployed but often daydreams that he is assisting the police as an undercover operative. Indeed he meets with both Kathleen and Jim (a couple) who are his friends from university but they are respectively a teacher and a drinks sales rep. Dr Fisher falls ill and both Coulson and Chris (who in the meantime have become acquaintances) have a new therapist: Dr Morland (Geoffrey McGivern). It is difficult to tell which sequence of events experienced by Chris is the real one as he seems to fall further into existenial despair. Was he ever even a policeman? He has also carried a torch for Kathleen since their college days.

A dark film which mixes elements of Chaos Magick in with time loops and psychological terror. Director and writer Gareth Tunley has added to the Canon of New British Horror with this drama which delivers a few twists and surprises. 8/10.

Admittedly didn't watch the whole thing

[PsychoBeard666 · 5/10 · 17 July 2019]

I'd been looking forward to watching this for a while because the premise intrigued me. Unfortunate I got very bored very fast and life is too short. Plus filling a thriller with comedy actors is very distracting.

Claustrophobic and some dubious casting

[mjsreg · 3/10 · 3 November 2018]

I found the excessive use of close -ups extremely annoying watching this. It wasn't as though the majority of the close ups established any new information or invoked a feeling of a character's state. It seemed to be used just because it seemed trendy to the director.

Then there is the casting. Most of the cast did a reasonable job for the story and (probably) the direction they received. But why on earth Alice Lowe was cast in this (or anything at all for that matter) is beyond me. She has no range, no diversity, nothing interesting in the way the portrays the role. She just plays exactly the same person in different situations no matter what the film is.

If there was a casting for the role there must have been far more suitable actresses, but I suspect she got the part just because she is part of some nepotistic crowd.

The film did very little for me at all. The story - which isn't a bad story - would probably have been much better had more thought and effort gone in to the production.