There seems to be a rise in horror films taking on the subject of paranormal activity of late and Judas Ghost DVD is no different, what is rare is to see it come in the form of a British Independent film, which is to hit DVD and on demand on the 20th of April. Loosely based on New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green’s book series called Ghost Finder’s, we are set for not really a scary horror film more a little creepy.
A group of Ghost hunters lead by Jerry (Martin Delaney) from the Carnacki Institute are sent into an old village hall after reports of supernatural happenings had taken place. It was only supposed to be a standard investigation used to film a training video for new recruits. However, events soon take a turn for the worse as the group slowly realise they are about to face something far more sinister than your standard haunting. The hall houses a deep dark secret which they slowly uncover and have to use every part of their training in order to come out alive, but obviously not all will live and what does become of those that are taken?
One thing I am grateful for was the fact that this wasn’t one of your handheld camera jobs that seem to be so popular amongst this genre of film even if filming was originally started in that fashion. Thankfully the director, Simon Pearce, changed his mind and decided to use the good old steady camerawork instead for most of the film.
Judas Ghost DVD was obviously made on a budget and one of the tell tale signs is the fact the whole film is set in one room and doesn’t move to any other locations (apart from one very short flash back scene), even though this can be a bit boring at times it helps you to concentrate mainly on the characters storyline rather than be distracted by their surroundings. This way we can see the team’s characters development from truly cocky individuals to those who are quite clearly scared and shaken by what is happening to them.
This maybe a horror but there is no way in this world this will remotely scare you; there was no real drama to build up suspense to give you any jump out of your skin moments, no real effects to make it feel like we were in a scary movie, you just feel it spends to long building up the characters and then they are very quickly killed off, leaving it all a bit anticlimactic.
As an independent film on what was obviously a very tight budget they did a pretty decent job with the tools available to them but it just lacks the drama needed to pull off a truly scary movie. This IS one film that would have been better as a TV special.
JUDAS GHOST IS OUT ON DVD AND ON DEMAND ON THE 20TH OF APRIL
Disc info
Feature Runtime = 74 mins approx
Cert = 15
Extras = BEHIND THE SCENES (16 mins) / DELETED SCENES (7 mins)