Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Ghoul Blu-ray Movie Review

Keeping in the loop.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 10, 2017

Note: The Ghoul is one of those films that resists being talked about or described without giving away plot points that could easily be considered spoilers. I've tried my best to dance around outright revelations in this review, but I heartily encourage anyone wanting to be surprised by this film to skip the main part of the review or at least try not to read between any veritable lines.

The “west side” of the United States, namely California and Hollywood, became the locus of the American film industry, and in a way at least somewhat similarly, a western region of London, Ealing, gave its name to one of the best remembered studios in British film history, a company responsible for all sorts of memorable properties such as Dead of Night, Whisky Galore!, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, Passport to Pimlico and The Titfield Thunderbolt. There may be a new appreciation for the venerable Ealing name, albeit with regard to the borough rather than the studio, as a number of young talents have been emerging in the revitalized independent British cinema world who have a connection to it. Among those talents are several people associated with The Ghoul, including writer-director Gareth Tunley, as well as stars Tom Meeten and Alice Lowe. As is documented in the appealing set of interviews included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, rather unexpectedly several of these new “Ealing crew” members got their starts in stand up comedy or sketch groups, two elements which most definitely do not show up in The Ghoul, a film which, despite its title, is not a monster movie (at least not in the traditional sense), but is very much in the David Lynch or Christopher Nolan mode of mind bending thriller territory (both of these directors are in fact cited on the back cover of the Blu-ray).

The Ghoul repeatedly utilizes imagery like Boolean strips and the Ouroboros, two things that potentially give away a structural artifice that plays into that “mind bending” strategy. That said, on its face The Ghoul at least seems (initially if not ultimately) to be a more or less straightforward procedural documenting the efforts of low key (and slightly rumpled, in time honored Columbo fashion) London cop Chris (Tom Meeten), who has been called to a crime scene where two gunshot victims evidently kept on coming toward their assailant even after they had been fatally shot (repeatedly). What’s to account for this strange turn of events? A supernatural undercurrent is already wafting through the proceedings, but Tunley actually doesn’t “go there”, instead taking an unexpected detour into Chris’ psychological unraveling when he discovers there may be a connection to a psychotherapist involved, and he decides to go undercover as a patient in order to investigate further, in a plot conceit that may remind some of relatively low grade fare like Shock Corridor.

Aided by his friend Kathleen (Alice Lowe), Chris is able to fake his way into seeing a therapist named Fisher (Niamh Cusack), who has a connection to Coulson (Rufus Jones), the suddenly missing property manager at the place the murders occurred, and who has become a prime suspect. Without giving away too many of the twists and turns The Ghoul takes, Chris’ “pretend” psychosis seems to be turning into something decidedly more “real” as the film progresses, ultimately leading to his interactions with another therapist named Morland (Geoffrey McGivern), whom Coulson may also have visited.

It’s no mere coincidence that The Ghoul features a lot of shots of Chris either sleeping, in bed, or awakening with a start from a nightmare, since the entire film has a hallucinatory ambience that feels like a waking dream. While ostensibly chronological (in one sense, anyway), the film works somewhat like Nolan’s Memento (in retrospect, anyway), in that discrete elements exist almost independently, shorn of any connection to “earlier” or “later” developments. That said, if a chronological viewpoint is inferred by some viewers, it arguably includes one glaring piece of illogic which I’ll only hint at by saying you can’t meet a murder victim after they’re dead, even if they did keep moving for a while after being shot.

While I’m not so sure that The Ghoul’s “pretzel logic” is as convincing as Nolan’s is in Memento or even David Lynch’s is in Mulholland Drive, the film has an undeniably unsettling quality that should resonate well with fans of either of those aforementioned directors. Performances are top notch across the board (even if Meeten gives in to a few too many tics), with Cusack and McGivern coming off as therapeutic versions of Roman and Minnie Castavets in Rosemary's Baby, seemingly sweet natured and suave, but also inescapably creepy and perhaps even nefarious.

The Ghoul Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Ghoul is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. Arrow's insert booklet only has a brief and pretty generic statement about the transfer, stating that the HD master was provided to them by the filmmakers. The commentary talks about the cheaper than cheap digital shoot, which, as stated above in the main body of the review, is intentionally dreamlike, with lots of dissolves, superimposed imagery, shaky cam, deliberate focus inadequacies and surreal imagery. As such, and coupled with the fact that several key sequences (including visits to the murder site) take place in virtual darkness, mean that detail levels as well as general sharpness are pretty widely variable. When the camera is more or less stationary in reasonably lit environments, detail and fine detail are quite excellent, especially in close-ups. Even some dimly lit material features above average fine detail (see screenshot 1). The palette is rather cool a lot of the time, although some bright outdoor moments pop in a more naturalistic and richly suffused way.

The Ghoul Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Ghoul features an effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that find some of its most evocative surround activity courtesy of Waen Shepherd's unusual and interesting score. The dreamlike atmosphere allows the sound design to offer effects which aren't necessarily linked to imagery, and there are certain times when there's a disconnect between the audio information and what's being displayed on screen. Long shots of driving around London provide occasional panning effects and good placement of ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

The Ghoul Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• In the Loop (1080p; 36:17) is an in depth set of interviews with Gareth Tunley, Tom Meeten, Alice Lowe, Geoff McGivern, Niamh Cusack, Rufus Jones, Dan Skinner, Ben Pritchard, Jack Guttmann, Waen Shepherd, Dhiraj Mahey and Ben Wheatley.


• The Baron (1080p; 9:27) is a 2013 short film featuring several of the same cast and crew. This has an optional commentary by Gareth Tunley and Tom Meeten.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:34)


• Commentary features Gareth Tunley, Tom Meeten and Jack Guttmann.

As usual, Arrow has also provided a nicely appointed insert booklet.

The Ghoul Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Ghoul is one of those films that virtually demands (at least) a second viewing, and so its Blu-ray debut should be welcomed by those who enjoy sorting out the little clues Tunley drops along the way (for example, I am wondering if the felicitous appearance of a black cat walking in front of a character at one brief moment, something I didn't notice the first time I watched, was intentional). The film is obviously pretty "trippy" and may not appeal to those who like their thrillers straightforward and easy to grasp, and I admittedly am still not sure all the pieces of this puzzle hang together when analyzed fully. That said, the story is intriguing and the performances are uniformly excellent, and Tunley offers a really hallucinatory view of London, which becomes almost a carnival like city of horrors. Technical merits are strong, and The Ghoul comes Recommended.