Nicholas Cage portrays Mike Lawford, a happily married college professor in New York City who works a little too much. When he's late taking his son Charlie out for Halloween he convinces his wife, Kristen (Sarah Wayne Callies of WALKING DEAD, COLONY) to let him take him to the nearby Halloween parade. It's there that the kid disappears into thin air, but not before he asks his father "Do we need to pay the ghost?". Mike is frantic but can't find him. Then, events skip to a year later. Mike and his wife are separated and he's obsessed with finding what happened to his missing child. He finds a pattern of several kids vanishing each Halloween in the city-and eventually uncovers a story about an early Irish settler who was blamed for a flu outbreak. Because she followed the old Celtic religion the locals blamed her and so burned her-and her three children-alive. Before she died, though, she vowed to take their children every Halloween, something she's now been doing for hundreds of years. As Halloween approaches Mike begins to see his son-on the street, on a bus-and follows the trail to an abandoned building which ends up being the place where the portal between the worlds opens every Samhain. It's easy to convince his wife this is true because she's seeing weird shit as well. In fact, they hire a psychic to visit their apartment-and the psychic is thrown around and burned from the inside out. Now, with time running out, Mike has to venture into the other realm and find his son and bring him back...
This is a surprisingly effective ghost story. It's a little bit like THE CONJURING films, a little bit like POLTERGEIST and even reminded me of Steve Miner's HOUSE from the 80's.
Highly recommended. Based on the novella by Tim Lebbon.
Nicholas Cage portrays Mike Lawford, a happily married college professor in New York City who works a little too much. When he's late taking his son Charlie out for Halloween he convinces his wife, Kristen (Sarah Wayne Callies of WALKING DEAD, COLONY) to let him take him to the nearby Halloween parade. It's there that the kid disappears into thin air, but not before he asks his father "Do we need to pay the ghost?". Mike is frantic but can't find him. Then, events skip to a year later. Mike and his wife are separated and he's obsessed with finding what happened to his missing child. He finds a pattern of several kids vanishing each Halloween in the city-and eventually uncovers a story about an early Irish settler who was blamed for a flu outbreak. Because she followed the old Celtic religion the locals blamed her and so burned her-and her three children-alive. Before she died, though, she vowed to take their children every Halloween, something she's now been doing for hundreds of years. As Halloween approaches Mike begins to see his son-on the street, on a bus-and follows the trail to an abandoned building which ends up being the place where the portal between the worlds opens every Samhain. It's easy to convince his wife this is true because she's seeing weird shit as well. In fact, they hire a psychic to visit their apartment-and the psychic is thrown around and burned from the inside out. Now, with time running out, Mike has to venture into the other realm and find his son and bring him back...
