After watching Pay the Ghost, I’m simply wondering why an Oscar-winning actor like Nicolas Cage is over and again picking up such mediocre projects. Based on Tim Lebbon’s short story, the movie has little to offer, keep aside the genre clichés or any sort of horror or suspense or even an ounce of thrill.

Cage stars in this film as Mike, a professor of literature, and a distressed father who is searching for his missing son who went missing during a Halloween carnival in New York City. The movie refers the Halloween’s Celtic origin and the bizarre traditions practiced back in the days of 1679 which are in no way fully explored in the film.

Coming back to the storyline, Mike a year later of his son’s disappearance is still hoping to find his son thereby trying to solve the mystery behind. When he starts seeing visions of his son and other unusual happenings in flashes, he tries to convince his wife, who is now living separately, that supernatural powers have something to do with their lost son.

Watch the Trailer – Pay the Ghost

Then it leads to some Celtic legend linking to a mother whose children were burnt alive and she was then burnt with indictment for being a witch. As revenge, the ghost of the lady returns every year on Halloween night to kidnap three children and transport them to her supernatural realm.

Director Uli Edel and writer Dan Kay seem to have lost track in creating this supernatural thriller with a convincing sequence of events. Everything on screen seems half-baked; the plot, character development, or Halloween as a spooky day doesn’t have enough substance to hold everything together.

As far as Cage is concerned, sorry to say but films like Pay the Ghost doesn’t justify what he is trying to prove. Forget about versatility, it doesn’t even give a chance to perform. I mean why the director here did not think of exploring more possibilities in the portrayal of Mike when the character here is a literature professor and the plot is based on some 17th-century legends!!

Genre: Horror/Supernatural
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Jack Fulton
Directed by: Uli Edel
Runtime: 1 hr 34 minutes