Judas Ghost (2013) Reviews

• More a filmed stage play than a horror movie

  Catharina_Sweden2015-07-04

  It was difficult to mark this movie, because it would not be right to give it high marks as a HORROR movie, because that would get people's expectations up. And this is not a good HORROR movie, in the sense of creepy atmosphere, excitement, good scares etc.. It is not creepy at all, the special effects are very crude and simple, the "ghost" is so obviously a person in stage make-up, the "blood" is so obviously paint etc.. There are no good scares at all. It is very low budget, and it is more like a filmed stage play than a movie. But on the other hand: if you accept this as a stage play about a typical ghost hunt situation, and do not expect it to be "The Orphanage" or "The Others" - then it is in fact quite good! The script and dialogue are intelligent, and the actors are good too.

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• Unexpected Surprise

  dcarsonhagy2015-12-29

  I caught this little unknown gem on On-Demand the other evening. I will admit I was bored, and I did not put much stock in this movie being any different from the (what seems like) millions of others in the same vein populating the rentals. Boy, was I in for a nice surprise! "Judas Ghost" is about a team of professional ghost hunters sent in to do some research on an old school hall. It looks innocent enough during daylight, but things do not stay innocent for very long. Doors appear and disappear; the same with telephones. The ghost hunters soon find themselves surrounded by a darkness...that bleeds. And the darkness seems to be everywhere. They all realize they are now in a race to fend off or defeat whatever is stalking them. One thing about this movie I really enjoyed was the cast. No one tried to overact his/her role. The dialogue was sincere and believable. Also, as another reviewer pointed out, I actually CARED about what happened to all these people. In so many other movies of this type, there always seems to be one character you cannot stand, one character you want dead immediately, and you can pretty much determine what will happen to the others. Also, the people involved with this production told their story and got the hell outta Dodge. There was no unnecessary shots of people mugging for the cameras or staring off into space for absolutely no reason. Alas, that is also one of the drawbacks: the movie just did not last long enough. Coming in at 74 minutes, it just needed a little more story to have received a higher rating from me. Still, I can recommend this one. The release I saw rated this "unrated." It does contain some disturbing images and language. I say go for it!

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• Simple, mildly clever 'Ghost-Hunter' story. Holds together fairly well until the last 20 minutes... Blu-ray: Good A:8 V:7

  lathe-of-heaven2017-04-03

  I don't normally go for most of the films like this that have been coming out recently (and there have been a TON of them) but once in a while I do find one entertaining. I think what appealed to me about this movie were the consistent 'rules' of Good vs. Evil that held it's story together for most of the time. I'm a real sucker for strong religious 'Mythologies' such as the Classic Cross, Holy Water, etc. Anything from the Classic Hammer Horror films to more recent movies that are based upon a ritualistic 'formula', or the 'belief' you have to have in order to carry out what they want to do, such as 'THE SKELETON KEY' or even the entertaining 'FRIGHT NIGHT' {the original film} Another thing that I thought was kind of interesting was this 'Institute' that clearly was an established center for studies into these kinds of Phenomena. I liked how this Institute came across as some distant Entity that was watching and perhaps knew more about why they were there than they did. It just gave a tad more menace and mystery to the atmosphere. For this kind of EXTREMELY limited film, a LOT really rides on the way it is done, the way it is acted, and how well it is written. I thought they held it together pretty well right up until just about the 55 minute mark where, to me anyway, the story took a bit of a dive in believability. Primarily concerning how a couple of the characters suddenly reacted to the circumstances. A bit of a shame, really, because I can truly say that it genuinely had me right up to that moment. Prior to that point in the film, I felt that the suspense and quality of the acting were fairly decent. I won't give anything away, but I really liked some of the simple tactics that the 'Hall' employed to keep the people off balance. I read in some other reviews on other sites that the lead guy came across as too arrogant. But, I thought he had just the right tone of confidence. VERY similar I thought to the way that Jeffrey Combs comes across in roles like this. And, I REALLY like him. Heh... he even kind of looked like him a little. No, I thought he just came across as a guy who really felt like he knew his stuff in doing this kind of work, that's all. But, in the hands of another actor, I can see where just a little too much that way and he would have come across as really stupid. If you are like me (and, God help you if you are...) and you like a simple 'Good vs. Evil' story told in a Classic kind of way with the Classic Mythologies firmly in place, you might enjoy this movie somewhat. BUT... like I mentioned, and thus the reason why I only gave it a rating of '6', I honestly feel that the last 20 minutes or so REALLY harms the effectiveness and the suspension of disbelief that the film makers had worked very hard to develop up to that point. And, that is something that is ESSENTIAL for a film like this. But, up to that moment, I genuinely enjoyed the Mystery of it all, the clever things that the 'Hall' did, and the somewhat intriguing Institute with it's ambiguous motives as to why they were really there...

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• Ghost finders filming a how-to in a haunted schoolroom find more than anyone would bargain for.

  stackk2013-10-05

  Saw this at Shriekfest: literally the 1st "movie" I've seen at my 4 festivals. Terrific acting and story, solid story-driven camera-work, great "look," shot for half-a-Mil. Only flaws are nitpickies made in any film. My vote was a 9, but I kicked it to 10 for this first-time director because it's every bit as good as Cusack/Håfström's 1408 on a tenth the budget. - Really IMDb? Ten lines of text? - Okay: I thought this would be a standard indie horror when I saw the trailer, but it *way* exceeded my expectations. The characters were people you enjoyed spending the time with embodied by actors confident (for good reason) in their abilities. The camera-work was innovative without putting a spotlight on itself, in full service to the story. The effects were used to striking effect, the low-budget shadows notwithstanding. I especially loved the "main" character's one bright-red arm of gore, like some sort of military presentation/accolade. -- Nice job and can't wait to see more from this hat-trick of director, producer and screenwriter.

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• great movie , very fun to watch

  atinder2015-05-04

  Judas Ghost (2013) team of professional ghost finders are trapped in an old village hall. The haunting they set out to investigate turns out to be far worse than they anticipated I thought this was going to be a full on rip off grave encounters but thankfully it was not, I am-sure that grave encounter may have been inspired this movie in some parts. I love the fact the whole movie in just in that one room, with haunting ,the way they keep you clued to the screen , really clever with a lot things happen in that . I enjoyed the humour added to the movie , it make feel more fun and enjoyable. I didn't find the movie scary but I did really like the darkness scene , with I thought was really creepy. The acting from the whole was great. I going to give 8 our of 10 Great movie

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