Screamfest Review: ‘A Ghost Waits’
A haunting, charming and genre-defying rumination on love, life and purpose, with a charismatic lead performance from MacLeod Andrews.
“Why do you do what you do?” That is the question posed to Jack, the lead character in Adam Stovall’s directorial debut, A Ghost Waits. Jack (played by the effortlessly charming MacLeod Andrews), finds himself at a unique fork on the road: To continue maintaining the house he was hired to refurbish in preparation of the arrival of its new tenants despite the presence of a ghost tasked with driving him out, or to leave and never return, losing a paycheck in the process. Jack has been firmly and stubbornly holding his own, refusing to be swayed by Muriel (Natalie Walker), the ghost assigned to the house by a mysterious taskforce that dispatches ghosts to haunt houses, and her efforts to frighten him. Asked by Ms. Henry (Amanda Miller), the manager of the taskforce itself, why he has been stubbornly deciding to say despite the mental and emotional strain he is put through by Muriel and her efforts to frighten him, Jack is at a loss for words. For the paycheck, he says at first. Why do you need a paycheck, she asks. To provide a living for myself, he replies. Why do you need to provide a living, she rebuts, if you have no one to live for?
No significant other. No children. No steady job. No immediate family. Friends who are content with leaving him sleeping on the floors of the houses he maintains rather than offering him a bed for the night. Jack is an incredibly lonely man, the weight of his solitude following him like a shadow despite his attempts at exhibiting a “happy go lucky” personality. With no one around to talk to and every single one of his friends ignoring his calls, Jack finds himself conversing with the toilet he is cleaning, moving its seat up and down to act as a “mouth” for its responses. He spends his days in a mechanical rut, performing the same tasks with the exact same results. He could very well be in a purgatory of his own making, reliving the same day over and over until his tiresome routine is interrupted by the arrival of Muriel, who injects both his days and the film itself with some much-needed variation and electricity. While Muriel is at first adamant at fulfilling her assignment of driving him out of the house, she soon takes a liking to Jack, throwing both of their ‘lives’ into a chaotic tailspin.
The character of Jack is a tricky one, requiring its actor to deliver a tightrope walk of a performance between a charismatic everyday man and an isolated, broken one. Andrews, best known for his role in Perry Blackshear’s They Look Like People and who is also a credited screenwriter on A Ghost Waits, proves he is more than up for the challenge, delivering a soulful, searing performance that rivals some of the best of the year. Walker, as the cool and composed foil to Andrews’ warm and frenzied Jack, also turns in a top notch performance, bringing some nuance and pathos to what easily could have been a one-note character in another actress’ hands.
Upon first glance, A Ghost Waits appears to be many things – a haunted house story, a romantic comedy, a psychological drama. And to a certain extent, it is all of those things – a combination of ambitious and interesting ideas, a cacophony of dichotomous tones and genres, an appealingly messy medley of intriguing thoughts and existential reflections. But A Ghost Waits is above all else a character study of a man at his wits’ end, trying desperately to assign meaning to what may very well be a meaningless life. The titular ghost that waits could very well be Muriel, who spends her days waiting for new “guests” to scare away from the house she has been assigned to haunt. But it could also be Jack who is practically a ghost himself, no personal connections or physical belongings anchoring him to the world, waiting for something (or someone) to lend purpose and meaning to his existence, and he ends up finding it in the most unexpected of places.
Much like Jack himself, A Ghost Waits is not perfect; it is rough around the edges and at times overly earnest. The film was shot over the course of 3 years on a shoestring budget and it shows, the film’s black-and-white cinematography only just doing an adequate job of camouflaging its budgetary shortcomings. Some of its jokes don’t land and certain musical cues are too awkward and clunky to truly make the intended impact. But its beauty lies in its imperfections. A Ghost Waits is charming, haunting, and bursting at the seams with an abundance of heart and passion. Adam Stovall has managed to create a loving ode to love itself, one that transcends genres, conventions and audience expectations. We all should be very excited to see what he does next.
Rating: 4/5
A Ghost Waits screened at the 2020 Screamfest Film Festival.