Don’t F**k with Ghosts: Low-Budget Comedy F**ks with Faux Phantoms for Fun… and Fright

By John Kirk

Rating: B+

For a low-budget film with a lowbrow title that doesn’t inspire much promise, Don’t F**k with Ghosts is a source of unexpected laughs. The secret of its unexpected success? It doesn’t think too much of itself and it actually does f**k around with ghosts.

The story starts with neophyte filmmakers Stuart Stone and Adam Rodness. They are desperate to pitch their film on the legendary Bigfoot. However, the studio has other ideas. Can they make a ghost-hunter film? Unwilling to back away from the miniscule budget they are offered, they take the project and hightail themselves to that mystical centre of Canadian supernatural activity, Winnipeg.

While there is a rough central storyline, the bulk of the script is essentially ad-libbed and spontaneous, the settings consist of cheap hotel rooms, personal homes, and community locations. However, they do shoot the film in actual haunted places with local reputations. That’s a lot of fun and considering that these local spots rarely get any sort of film exposure, it’s pretty good-spirited, no pun intended.

One key part of the storyline is that the studio requires the aspiring filmmakers to deliver a rough cut that promises some proof of the supernatural or the deal is off. This leads Stuart and Adam to come up with some crazy solutions, like getting local mediums and ghost hunters to help them find something for the studio to see.

That leads to some creative casting decisions. The film makes use of local psychics who take them on tours of these haunted locations and do attempt to contact the spirits who inhabit them. In the absence of any scripting, the incidents are actually entertaining and conjure up a bit of spookiness.

They also locate some local ghost-hunters to bring technology like motion-capture imagery, spectroscopic thermal imaging and whatnot. While these moments are presented with some clownish humour, there’s actually a kernel of reality in that these people are actual paranormal investigators and not just the ghost-f**kers of the title.

Meeting Sherpa Steve (Tony Nappo) is an event in the film that provides some goofy humour. Of course, it’s not over the top, but that’s in measure with the film. Everything is scaled down, even Sherpa Steve’s connection to the spirit world which in some weird way proves to be useful for the latter parts of the film. But throw in a few magic mushrooms and you have a basic comedy scene that, as cheap as it may be, adds more laughs.

In the course of the story, frustrated by not being able to conjure up the definitive proof of the afterlife that they desperately need, Stuart and Adam turn to stage magicians to fabricate a ghostly experience and even consider making a haunted house to stage these experiences. Like Sherpa Steve, these second-rate stage magicians (and even a Balloon Animal Clown) add a few more chuckles to the mix.

Even Stuart and Adam’s antagonistic work relationship, amateurly presented as it is, contributes to the milieu. If they’re not arguing with each other, they’re fighting for dominance over who is creatively in charge. When Adam starts to demonstrate strange reactions to contact with the other world, then the audience starts to get the idea that maybe these guys aren’t f**king around with ghosts and that ghosts are starting to f**k around with them.

That little bit of doubt added to the second half of the film changes the audience’s mindset of the film. It’s craftily done. The idea that there might be some ghosts showing up in the production takes root in the perception of the audience and manages to elevate the film to something a bit bigger.

The film doesn’t take itself seriously, which is why when something serious is about to happen, it takes the viewer off guard. That’s a cool gimmick for a film of this stature to pull off.

Don’t F**ck with Ghosts. Directed by Stuart Stone, written by Stuart Stone and Adam Rodness. Starring Stuart Stone, Adam Rodness, Josh Cruddas, Ray Strachan, Tony Nappo, and Ken Sky. Premiering October 10, in theatres October 11.