What happens when you take the premise from the television show GHOST HUNTERS, replace Jay, Grant and the rest of the clan with annoying college kids and a ghost who wants her baby back. Well you get this generic horror ghost flick GHOSTS OF GOLDFIELD.
Pretty much GHOSTS OF GOLDFIELD follows five college students into a haunted hotel where one of the then is doing the whole whole ghost hunting thing as part of her college thesis. Legend has it that back in the day some girl had a baby that was not her husbands, but instead was some guy played by Rodney Roddy Piper kid. The girls husband killed the baby by throwing it down a mineshaft or something, and then killed her and now her spirit has to relive that tragedy each night. At least that’s how I think it went. But honestly who cares, you’ve seen one ghost story that takes place in a haunted hotel, you’ve seen em all. Anyway, in a montage where the lead chick in this flick played by Marnette Patterson tells us the story I told above in a very “Oh So Scary” way that it some how pisses off the ghost and she decided to trap them all in the hotel and let then witness her pain full hand. So anyway, you get the point from here, all hell breaks loose and our ghost hunters have to fight it out for their lives.
I not going to sit here and knock on everything that bothered me about this film because I’ve seen a lot worse. And trust me while GHOSTS OF GOLDFIELD is by no means a great movie; it’s a lot better than the majority of crap out there. It has some very good production value at best and I will at least give the filmmakers credit for their great use of lighting and original camera shots and angles. The script was bad, plan and simple. It had a generic story that we’ve seen in plenty of horror films before, and the characters were not developed all that well. I will however say that the dialogue, although nothing good by any means, it was at least written in an attempt to push the story a long and not have the characters tell us the story as the movie move along. The problem with the acting in the movie is the timing. It seemed that in every scene each actor was going word for word from the script and it showed. Even that of Rodney Pipers lines, he seemed to stumble and stutter a bit, because the words did not seem to be written naturally for the actors to be able to adapt to them.
Overall, While GHOSTS OF GOLDFIELD is by no means good film, nor is it just alright. I’m not going to say it’s horrible. It’s an independent film with many flaws, but I’ve seen a lot worse. The good thing is that no matter how many flaws I was able to pick up, the story was at least easy to follow along with and I was able to get though the movie and understand what was going on. It’s a decent first attempt from the young filmmakers who made this movie. At least they got their camera angles and lighting down right.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
