The Ghoul

When this first started, I thought I was in for a long, boring ride, but it turned out to be very, very interesting! While it may not tread new ground (anyone into horror has been subject to the "it was all in his/her head" trope), it does it in a very, very unique way that doesn't necessarily clarify if it was, indeed, all in his head....or if there is an element of dark magic at work. I'm giving it 9/10, primarily because I'm really NOT sure what happened. I think there was definitely dark magic at work, but I also think the main character did start out as an undercover cop who somehow forgot that that's what he was. That being said, it's confusing then that the woman he's interested in suddenly turns out to be a teacher, and the friend/other cop (?) turns out to work for a liquor company. In fact, I had to go back to the beginning of this movie after watching to make sure these were all the same characters and actors! So the question is, what was real? WERE the two of them cops? Was Kathleen a profiler? If they weren't, how did they come to know about the case in the first place? There is a point at which one of the therapists says that Coulson is "very good at putting ideas in people's heads", but I think one option is that the therapists were perhaps manipulating the main character's point of view. Another option is, of course, that his life - and the lives of his friends - as policemen and investigators really WAS in his head, and that he's just a very, very confused man. Either way, it's interesting, but I would have preferred a more clear answer than the one I received. In spite of that, it's an excellent movie, especially if you like suspense! I highly recommend this one!

I'd been looking forward to watching this for a while because the premise intrigued me. Unfortunate I got very bored very fast and life is too short. Plus filling a thriller with comedy actors is very distracting.

This is not a horror film but a complex and dark psychological thriller about a policeman investigating a double murder - or is it all in his imagination? Some reviewers have complained that it is boring but I found it to be a slow yet riveting burn, all the way to it's clever finale. It is well acted & liked the many great shots of London. Certainly not to everybody's taste but to deride this as rubbish is unfair & ignorant.

The Ghoul (2017): A very British Horror Film bringing to mind both Kill List and A Dark Ritual among other recent works. Chris (Tom Meeten), an ex-cop is recruited by a detective Jim (Dan Skinner) and profiler Kathleen (Alice Lowe) to help investigate the murder of two psychotherapists. The main suspect is Coulson (Rufus Jones), their landlord; Chris moves to London and goes undercover to trail him. Finding that Coulson has himself gone into psychotherapy after the incident, Chris feigns depression and is referred to Coulson's psychotherapist, Dr Fisher (Niamh Cusack). The narrative then takes a strange twist as Chris tells Fisher that he is unemployed but often daydreams that he is assisting the police as an undercover operative. Indeed he meets with both Kathleen and Jim (a couple) who are his friends from university but they are respectively a teacher and a drinks sales rep. Dr Fisher falls ill and both Coulson and Chris (who in the meantime have become acquaintances) have a new therapist: Dr Morland (Geoffrey McGivern). It is difficult to tell which sequence of events experienced by Chris is the real one as he seems to fall further into existenial despair. Was he ever even a policeman? He has also carried a torch for Kathleen since their college days. A dark film which mixes elements of Chaos Magick in with time loops and psychological terror. Director and writer Gareth Tunley has added to the Canon of New British Horror with this drama which delivers a few twists and surprises. 8/10.

This movie asks many questions and leaves ample time, long tedious boring pauses, for you to ponder your own responses. The type of drivel propaganda worthy of funding from surveillance apparatus and research teams. A must watch if you are studying psychology at University, otherwise give it a miss. Destined for a curated Netflix list of psychological bafflement. Yawn.

PLOT SPOILER REVIEW Chris (Tom Meeten) is investigating an odd murder pretending to be a patient to get information about another patient. However the lines become blurred. Chris believes he is the patient who day dreams about being a cop. A friend blurs things about midpoint claiming Chris is really a cop and the psychologists are attempting to make him think he is a normal guy. For the audience, these lines are smartly blurred and we don't know the truth until the end....I think. The problem with the film, in spite of it being well done, is that it is slow and boring with pathetic characters all around. The film put me to sleep. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

A homicide detective (Tom Meeten) goes undercover as a patient to investigate a psychotherapist he believes is linked to a strange double murder. As his therapy sessions continue the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur. Strangely, for a film this dark, the casting came from comedians who were working at the Edinburgh Festival. Their skits led to "The Baron" (2013), a comedic short film made for "a few hundred quid". This brought together Gareth Tunley and writer-actor Tom Meeten, as well as bringing in composer Waen Shepherd and producer Jack Healy Guttmann. It would be no exaggeration to say that "The Baron" was the test run for "The Ghoul", despite them having nothing in common thematically. Those involved believed that if Christopher Nolan could make "Following" with no budget, they could pull it off, too. From the get-go, Waen Shepherd's score is reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti; interestingly, Catherine Bray thinks the film is "scary in the manner of David Lynch films, with the chills coming from a nightmarish repurposing of the mundane or suburban", so perhaps the score is intentional. Of course, Shepherd does much more than that -- he has provided just about every genre of music (60s pop to reggae) to the soundtrack. The plot is defined as a cinematic Möbius strip by writer/director Gareth Tunley. This almost gives too much away, but at the same time is really at the heart of the film. The most interesting scene is the one where the various objects in the doctor's office are described: the mobius strip, the ouroboros (infinity snake), and so on... we are made quite aware of how important this is. Let's look at the critics. Gareth Jones praises the film, with his only concern being that "it can occasionally find itself bogged down by its overly melancholy presentation and measured pacing". This is fair, though probably unavoidable. Bray compares the film favorably to Lynch's "Lost Highway", though she has concerns that the film "isn't the midnight horror romp its title may suggest", and this may cause it to connect poorly with audience expectations. True, the title may be misleading, but it has its own importance, too. Stephen Dalton thinks the picture "feels a little too slight and cryptic to make any serious headway with mainstream genre fans... never quite delivers on its mind-bending promise." Yet, "Tunley confirms his mastery of macabre moods here. Now he needs a bigger budget and a broader canvas." Mainstream or not, it fits in well alongside films like "Timecrimes" that have us questioning the linear story-telling. Peter Bradshaw may be the harshest critic, saying the movie "feels like a film-school project" that is "heartsinkingly pointless" and "takes us on a journey to nowhere." Not only is Bradshaw the most harsh, but the most off-base. While he may not be wrong, strictly speaking, the "pointlessness" is precisely the point! The film never sets up to tie everything up with a ribbon, and this may be its greatest strength: viewers are well-served to watch it twice or more to deepen comprehension. Though Arrow Video specializes in bringing forgotten gems back to life, they do just as great of a job when they are working with contemporary titles like "The Ghoul". On their Blu-ray release, we get the filmmakers' commentary, interviews with most of the cast and crew (which are very insightful), and even "The Baron", the short film by Gareth Tunley, starring Tom Meeten and Steve Oram.

"The Ghoul" is not a horror movie or even one that will make much sense to the majority of viewers. If you happen to enjoy mind-bending stories with no true finish line, this is your movie. David Lynch fans will rejoice. It's quite the experience and will leave you disoriented, thinking you may have taken LSD prior to watching. It's enjoyable if you know what's in store so hopefully this review has been of some help.

I 'get' what this film tries to do, I just don't like it. Someone was quoted as saying it could stand alongside David Lynch's 'Lost Highway', but I disagree. The term 'Lovecraftian' has been used many times in recent years to describe many films, but few truly are. 'The Ghoul' is most definitely Lovecraftian, and it has some excellent aspects; the acting is solid, as is the cinematography. The story leaves a lot to be desired however, and as I mentioned, I 'get' it, but I don't like it. This film is disjointed and awkward in its flow, which was likely intentional, however it doesn't serve the film. In the end it left much to be desired. In the beginning you're loving it, in the middle you're excited to see where it's going, but by the last bit you're saying, "This can't really be it, can it?!" All in all, this film absolutely has the feel and look of a Lynch-made masterpiece, but almost none of the substance and (dare I say) the dazzle of one such as 'Lost Highway' - to which it's been compared. On the one hand, I loved (really loved) how it portrays a depressed man in such a gritty and realistic way. But on the other hand, it felt lacking and failed to climax into anything that's anywhere near greatness. Not a complete waste of time, and it may very well be enjoyed by some, but for me this fell far short of my initial expectations which the opening scenes gave rise to - 6 out of 10.

THE GHOUL is one of those low rent thrillers that starts out as a proper movie - a police procedural, no less - before heading off in an entirely different direction. The first scene, which takes place at an unusual crime scene, had my attention from the start, but the film subsequently descends into endless psychological shenanigans as the main character undergoes a mental breakdown of sorts and ends up living in a hallucinatory world. It's cheap and arty, lacking in concrete detail and proper performances, with the main character a bit of a drag and the actor doing very little to make him the least bit sympathetic.