I Am a Ghost

I’m not sure how to review this movie without giving anything away or dissecting the strange techniques used in telling this story. I’ll do my best to keep it simple and hope to interest you into giving this unique movie a chance. The main character (and for 95% of the movie, the only character we see) is Emily. She is from a long time ago, the early 20th century. She goes about her daily routine by herself in a large house; cooks breakfast, reads, goes shopping, and while eating breakfast, stabs herself in the hand with a butter knife. And then it all happens again. And again. And again. And finally, as she’s in a bedroom, she heard a voice, Sylvia, a medium who helps guide spirits to the afterlife. Emily is a ghost. But for some reason, Sylvia’s attempts to get her to the light aren’t working. That’s the basic set up. But that hardly does it justice. Shot for a measly $10,000, the movie does a whole hell of a lot with not a whole lot. It makes fantastic use of the bottle setting of this old house. The framing of the movie — like, a literal frame, a rounded-edge rectangle — as well as the weird repetition and the ways in which the repetition is tweaked, add to the discomfort you feel from this movie. It’s off kilter, but in all the right ways. It never goes for cheap scares or gore. It wants to get under your skin, make you feel off balance bit by bit, and I think it does a damned fine job of it. The climax is absolutely bonkers, but not in a way that betrays the slow build of before. And though it’s only 75 minutes, that feels like enough. There’s no fat here, and you won’t walk away thinking it needed more. It’s just right. If I could criticize anything, some of the repetition can get, shockingly, repetitive. It’s all in service of the movie, so I can’t be too down on it, but you do get tired of seeing Emily make eggs and tie on her bonnet. Also, while creepy, it isn’t scary by a long shot. Still, it’s worth the watch for the inventive, different take on a haunting, and what haunting really means. Claustrophobic, and just a little bit insidious, and a whole lot of interesting.