The Ghost writer

This year again the londoion Frightfest has allowed us to discover many independent films more or less successful. In the case of Paul Wilkins' second film on a script he co-wrote with Guy Fee, it is a literary thriller about writing a new novel and especially about the confrontation between the traumas of the past and their consequences on the present. 

Gilliger Graham (Gilliger Graham) is a struggling writer who hasn't been successful in a long time. In order to get back on track and save his career, he must write a successful novel. In order to find his inspiration, he decides to go to his old family home where his father, once a successful writer as well, died under mysterious circumstances. Still lacking inspiration in his family home, he stumbles upon an old, unfinished manuscript that is hidden away. It is the last incomplete novel of his late father. Quickly realizing that this novel is better than anything he could write himself, he decides to plagiarize it and take credit for it. However, what could have been a way for him to regain success will soon become a real hell as ghosts from the past decide to visit her and confront her with her mistakes.

The director Paul Wilkins, like his main character, seems to be cruelly lacking in inspiration and his film hardly manages to display the quality of a slow and unconvincing TV movie that one could discover at the end of the evening on a public channel. The subject of the film could have been very successful if we think back to Stanley Kubrick's Shining, based on a book by Stephen King and also dealing with the lack of inspiration, ghosts, a haunted house (more precisely a dilapidated luxury hotel) but where the gifted Stanley Kubrick imposed a timeless masterpiece while moving away from the book of our favorite writer, Paul Wilkins is content to deliver a film cruelly lacking in rhythm and above all of a neat photography and an impeccable cast. As much as for a first movie some mistakes would be forgivable, in this case, we are bored and nothing can save the spectators from a deadly boredom.

The Ghost Writer
Directed by Paul Wilkins
Produced by Nigel Galt, Paul Wilkins
Written by Guy Fee, Paul Wilkins
Starring Luke Mably, Andrea Deck, Robert Portal, Matthew Jure, Brendan Patricks, Laura Ashcroft, Jago Erith, Emma James, Howard Lee
Music by Rachel Jamieson
Cinematography : Robin Whenary
Edited by Nigel Galt 
Running time : 93 minutes

Seen on August 29, 2022 (press screener)

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