Ghost Game (2006)

A different way of telling a story

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

A disappointingly uneventful Thai horror film about a group of unappealing characters, trapped in a haunted location and finding themselves at the mercy of various ghostly figures. The premise behind GHOST GAME sounds good – BATTLE ROYALE with a supernatural twist, perhaps – but the execution turns out to be lacklustre and muddled in equal measure. After the usual chit-chat and setup to the story, the characters are split up either singly or into pairs and then face repetitive encounters with grey-faced spirits.The film is billed as 'one of the most controversial' ever made; in Cambodia, maybe, where folk took exception to the former Khmer Rouge setting and banned the movie, but certainly nowhere else. In fact, it turns out to be rather predictable. The ghostly encounters are played for maximum scares, but never unsettled me for a moment; I've seen so many similar run-ins with spirits, zombies, etc. that I must have become rather jaded. The entire setup - with the shadowy locales, suspenseful music, and frightened actors - just feels passe, as if it's being performed by rote rather than with genuine enthusiasm.I didn't think much of the actors or indeed the director, either, and a script that's content to repeat rather than innovate just adds to the overall disappointing viewing experience. I don't know about the Thais, but I prefer my horror a little more sophisticated than in this predictable outing…give me SHUTTER any day!

+ three points for production values bigbrother with ghosts, kinda bad plot especially as the actors were basic teens... this movie could have been from dimension films... i didn't get scared... the ideas were that used. the use of bass, and mtv-style editing. sounds we're similar to everything you have seen before.nothing new... except that it's not made in California =D.the ghosts maybe scare kids, but to me a grown man whose seen a lot of crap, this movie made no impact.dull, boring, nothing new. another teen movie, with bass sounds with every scare =D

The movie itself is a failure, big time. Scare elements left me yawning (literally). The story has no real ending, and makes little sense. However, I do like the premise where the movie is based on, and the directing made the movie looks very much like a reality show. I find myself asking the same questions as I would while watching a reality show. The sound is nothing to shout about, but the sight is quite awesome. Set design was incredibly detailed and realistic. Lighting was especially good. However, costume design and make-up leaves a lot to be desired. Acting was incredibly lame. A good watch to waste your time, but I have better things to do and scarier movies to watch. Try Shutter if you can get your hands on it. One of the best Thai scary movie ever. In fact, with Shutter and Dorm, I'll say that Thai movies are beginning to play better than most Hollywood cash cows, but then Ghost Game came along and destroyed my conviction.

The premise seemed interesting enough - a group of game contestants undertaking the ultimate dare, to rough it out in a prison renowned for its haunting given that it was the location of a massacre. The news film reel style at the beginning, without showing much gore, already set the atmosphere and mood, providing much anticipated scares for our 11 contestants. Again I'm sad to say that this horror flick didn't work for me.It seemed like a bit of Battle Royale meeting Truman Show mixed with Survivor elements. While Battle Royale had a group of students sent to an island for them to whack the living daylights out of each other, in this one our motley crew had to rely more on psychology to outplay, outwit and outlast each other, as well as the supernatural elements. There's something in common though, in that they had ex-winners re-enter the competition. There're plenty of CCTV cameras and public announcement speakers installed throughout where instructions are yelled through, and images are recorded for public broadcast in the show Ghost Game.Like Survivor, there were plenty of decisions made in the spirit of that game, together with familiar elements of alliances and mistrust, of second guessing good intentions and making wild conjectures, all in the name of playing the game and emerging the winner for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.Which actually left the scares wanting. Unfortunately we had to fall back on the usual lame quick cuts, sudden camera zooms, and extreme close ups accompanied by loud beats to race heartbeats. It might even leave you wondering about that aged old saying, that only if you're unlucky, could you see spirits wandering around you. Here, sightings aren't consistent if that aged old saying is to be believed, and that could be a bit frustrating. Setting the game to coincide with the anniversary of the massacre seemed like common sense for television ratings, As a side, the eleven contestants here are actually from a variety show called Academy Fantasia in Thailand, and in similar fashion, they get "voted off" here too. The gem however turned out to be the scene played during the end credits, where the contestants come out to say a few words prior to being sent to the game location. Plenty of cheese as they ham it up in character, and watching it in hindsight, you can't help but to feel a tinge of despair.P.S. I've read that the filmmakers had to apologize given the premise of the prison seemed to have cut too close to the Cambodian's Toul Sieng prison during the Khmer Rouge regime, with the depiction of genocide, and the loose reference in the movie in the form of a game show.