Ghosts of War (2020)

 

                “Ghosts of War” is currently streaming on Netflix, so I felt I had to kill 1:34 of my life watching it.  It was written and directed by Eric Bress.  It was the first movie he directed since “The Butterfly Effect” in 2004.  That gap is not because he’s the next Terence Malick.  It was released on DirecTV. Perhaps it would have gotten a theatrical release if not for the pandemic. That’s probably Bress’ story.  It was filmed in Bulgaria.

                The film is set in France in 1944, apparently soon after D-Day.  Five men are sleeping under the stars.  Nary a fox hole in sight.  The five paratroopers walking across the French countryside have 82^nd Airborne patches and Big Red One patches. Their mission is to defend a chateau (like in “A Midnight Clear”) thirty miles away.  Are you getting the impression Mr. Bress is a bit confused about soldiering in Normandy?  Along the way, they see a German jeep (you heard that right) that hits a mine.  Tappert (Kyle Gallner) adds to his gold teeth collection and Kirk (Theo Rossi) boxes with a German major (you heard that right).  They then encounter some concentration camp survivors (in France?).  Tappert gives his teeth collection to a mother.  When they reach the mansion, the men they are relieving are antsy to get the hell out of there.  They seem nervous, but don’t warn the five that they’ll be sorry!  The five shake off the bad vibes and proceed to lounge around with nobody on guard.   At this point the haunted house thrills begin.  A door opens by itself, strange noises, occasional glimpses of dead people -  the usual stuff.  Eugene (Skylar Astin) finds the diary of a German soldier that details the killings of the French family of four.  A force of 50 Germans arrives so we can have some combat.  Each of the five end up in different parts of the house where they get to kill krauts in a variety of ways.  They are helped by vengeance-minded ghosts.  At the end of the skirmish, the score is Americans – 50, Germans – 1.  When they finally decide to leave (long after you and I would have scrammed), they keep ending up back at the house.  The ghosts and viewers need closure.

                “Ghosts of War” starts off badly with the ridiculous jeep scene.  I was shaking my head and continued to through the cliched haunted house effects.  None of which are scary.  The five are also cliched.  The order-following leader, the intellectual who can read a German diary, the ox who would box with a German, the psycho tooth-extractor, and another guy.  Tappert (the psycho) gets most of the focus since this is a ghost story and he is creepy.  The acting is decent and certainly better than most of the low-budget WWII movies.  The movie is rolling along and I’m glancing at the Internet and yawning when suddenly it takes a totally unpredicted turn.  Hey, is that Billy Zane?  What the hell is he doing in this movie?  And why are they in a modern hospital?  It’s now a sci-fi movie!  I won’t give it away, but the last act is gonzo.  The most I can tell you is to look and listen for clues that hint at the hospital.  I’ll admit I was clueless.  In fact, one of the clues made me shake my head at how sloppy Bress was in his screenwriting.  Tappert mentions that he had seen horror movies like “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”.

                I was prepared to give the movie a D partly because of some unforced errors in depicting soldier behavior and the standard haunted house thrills that weren’t very thrilling.  Then the movie took that bizarre turn and it made me sit up and take notice.  It’s still not a good movie, but it did get bumped up into the C range.  Why are there so few good war horror movies?  Actually, we have some great ones if we classify war as a horror in itself.  Then we could include “All Quiet…”, “Paths of Glory”, “Cross of Iron”, etc.  I guess you would have had to add ghosts to them.  Hey, “All Quiet..” has ghosts in the end!  I’ve just made a case for it being the greatest war horror film.  My God, I’ve just included “Ghosts of War” in a paragraph with “All Quiet…”  I need to take a shower.  Anyway, if you want to see the shocking development that I hinted at, you can watch “Ghosts of War”.  It’s not terrible.

GRADE  =  C