GHOST LIGHT (2018)

Studio:      Giant Pictures
Director:    John Stimpson
Writer:      Geoffrey Taylor, John Stimpson
Producer:  Geoffrey Taylor, John Stimpson
Stars:     Roger Bart, Tom Riley, Shannyn Sossamon, Danielle Campbell, Scott Adsit, Steve Tom, Carol Kane, Cary Elwes

Review Score:

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Summary:

Supernatural strangeness plagues a performance of Macbeth when a quirky theater troupe invokes the haunted play’s curse.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

The Shakespeare on Wheels theater troupe arrives by bus at the Riverside Lodge and Theater to prepare their 51st performance of Macbeth. Troupe members include director Henry Asquith, stage manager Archie MacIntosh, pretentious actor and former soap opera star Alex Pankhurst, Alex’s actress wife Liz Beth Stephens, Liz’s secret lover and Alex’s jealous rival Thomas Ingram, veteran actress Madeline Styne, veteran actor Elliot Wadsworth, actress Annabel Anderson, stagehand Troy Mattson, Troy’s ex-boyfriend Nigel Bloom, and additional stagehand Jason Palmer, who carries on a sexual relationship with Annabel.

Theater owner George Pitard briefly introduces himself. Lodge caretakers Edna and Eloise Levesque introduce themselves later.

Actors discuss theater superstitions regarding the ghost light and whistling. Actors also mention how the name Macbeth is not to be spoken except during performances because Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish Play’ is supposedly cursed by the witches’ magic.

Henry tries asking Madeline to tone down her cartoonish portrayal of a witch. Upset, Madeline intentionally shouts the name Macbeth several times. Archie forces Madeline to run around the theater as atonement before begging for forgiveness.

Thomas rehearses onstage alone. Bemoaning that he should play the lead role, Thomas shouts the name Macbeth. Liz joins him and they both shout the name. The ghost light goes out.

Thomas briefly sees a ghost in his bedroom that night. Liz joins Thomas after her husband falls asleep. Thomas and Liz discuss an accident befalling Alex.

Looking for a yoga retreat, a young woman named Juliet Miller interrupts rehearsal the next day. Enamored by her presence, the troupe invites Juliet to take the role of a witch. Thomas imagines having sex with Juliet. The lights go out on Alex while he rehearses onstage alone. Alex hears ghostly voices before a metal rod falls and knocks him unconscious. Madeline claims the curse is responsible for Alex’s injury.

Henry reluctantly promotes Thomas to take over for Alex as Macbeth. Although Thomas denies wrongdoing, Henry remains suspicious that Thomas was involved in Alex’s accident.

Liz suffers from a delusion of being unable to clean Alex’s blood from her hands. Liz’s performance improves, but she continues behaving as though entranced and unstable.

Alex unexpectedly returns to rehearsal. Everyone is astonished to see Alex suddenly performing phenomenally.

Liz demeans Thomas by telling him he missed his chance to get rid of Alex. After apologizing for insulting remarks made earlier, Thomas prepares to hit Alex in the head with a boat oar. However, Thomas becomes startled when he sees himself in Alex’s place. Liz insinuates Thomas is a coward.

Henry talks to Liz about her odd behavior. Liz admits she and Thomas invoked the curse. Henry insists there is no curse.

During the night, Liz nearly smothers Alex with a pillow because of his snoring. Supernatural activity and disembodied voices distract her. Witchy voices wake everyone during an overnight storm, unsettling several actors. Juliet, seen performing a meditative incantation earlier, remains weirdly calm.

Thomas has a nightmare of Liz as a ghoul. Liz appears in Thomas’ bedroom and takes the nude forms of Juliet, Annabel, and Nigel before vanishing. Seeing another vision in his mirror, Thomas touches the glass and seemingly releases ghostly witches.

Thomas balks when Liz brings up a plot against Alex the next morning. Alex sees a cutting board bleed where Liz put a knife.

Thomas tries talking to Henry about the strangeness affecting everyone. A vision of himself as Macbeth haunts Thomas.

Liz visits Thomas in his dressing room. Liz exits, reenters, and has the same conversation. When she returns a third time, Liz complains about her bloody hands and touches Thomas’ face.

The troupe is informed that their performance sold out. The play begins.

An inexplicable costuming issue causes Troy and Nigel to miss their cue as brigands who stab Thomas’ character. Two robed figures stab Thomas to death onstage for real. Thomas reappears as a ghost during a banquet scene.

Madeline and Annabel are strangely unable to find the stage. Edna and Eloise take their places with Juliet as the witches.

Troy and Nigel inform Henry they weren’t the men who stabbed Thomas. Archie finds Thomas’ dead body backstage.

Alex vomits after the three witches conjure a bloody baby from their cauldron. Liz commits suicide by drinking real poison during her performance.

Juliet summons Thomas’ ghost to the stage. Thomas continues the play as Macbeth in Alex’s place.

Archie tells Henry he found Thomas dead. Confused, everyone goes to see the body. Henry, Archie, Alex, Madeline, Elliot, Annabel, Jason, Troy, and Nigel become supernaturally locked inside the green room.

The play concludes with ghosts playing all of the roles. The enthusiastic audience is also revealed to consist of ghosts.

Thomas and Liz bow for their curtain calls. The backstage door finally unlocks. Thomas and Liz’s bodies mysteriously vanish. Henry and the others find the theater empty. The real Edna and Eloise Levesque arrive, perplexing everyone further. Thomas and Liz fade from a photograph of the troupe on a cellphone.

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Review:

More superstitions govern how to handle one’s self in a theater than Keye Luke has instructions for handling a mogwai. Leave a light lit on a darkened stage to ward off ghostly spirits. Don’t whistle or else risk accidentally cueing a stagehand to dump a set piece on your dome. And never, ever say the name “Macbeth” unless you want to unleash the curse of the witches connected to Shakespeare’s supposedly haunted play.

The eccentric cast featured in John Stimpson’s comedy “Ghost Light” breaks all three rules within five minutes of arriving at the Riverside Lodge and Theater. Their 11-person outfit has come to this out of the way B&B venue to put on their 51stperformance of The Bard’s ‘Scottish Play.’ Now the wicked wrath invoked by uttering the forbidden name threatens to throw the troupe for a humorously horrifying loop, if their egos and idiosyncrasies don’t unravel everyone first.

A stock assortment of stage play stereotypes suits up for “Ghost Light.” Déjà vu dominates pat personalities as written, although an excellent ensemble warms everyone up with charismatic aplomb.

Cary Elwes puts a juicy side order of ham on his plate as he playfully chews up the part of leading man Alex, a faded soap star whose pretension eclipses talent. He’s so full of himself he can’t see his disinterested wife Liz (Shannyn Sossamon) has been carrying on an affair with scheming British thespian Thomas (Tom Riley), who has designs on taking Alex’s place onstage as well as off.

Carol Kane breaks her string of underused appearances in flighty flicks like “The Dead Don’t Die” (review here) in a role with some minor meat on its bones. Like two-thirds of the overstuffed roster, Kane doesn’t feature often. When she does, she makes it count. Kane commits wholeheartedly to an aging veteran whose inability to accept criticism causes her to crack cartoonishly in more than one instance.

Long lost Duplass brother Roger Bart isn’t as haggard as one might expect for put-upon director Henry. Bart plays Henry as less desperate, more realistic for a man whose main job is keeping has-beens and almost-weres copasetic. Scott Adsit puts a pinch of zealous zaniness on Bart’s hip as a homely assistant director surprisingly disheartened he won’t get to don a woman’s wig when enchanting newcomer Juliet (Danielle Campbell) takes over as one of the witches.

Spotlights don’t swing as squarely at the rest of the gang. Gay stagehands Troy and Nigel used to be an item. Additional actress Annabel engages in a tame tryst with prop man Jason. Kane’s character becomes embroiled in a third go-nowhere romance by flirting with her counterpart Elliot (Steve Tom). I can’t say for certain if rewriting or re-editing reconfigured these arcs into forgettable flings featuring forgettable people. I can only say that they’re reappearing hangnails of inconsequence in an otherwise sprightly paced little film.

“Ghost Light” lays groundwork for mirth more irreverent than it ends up employing. At top speed, the movie might tread territory closer to a Mel Brooks parody or similarly snappy, satirical send-up of entertainment industry tropes. Director John Stimpson instead rides the brakes to keep a highway-safe tempo in terms of characterization and comedy. That’s as much of a mild criticism as it is guidance for gauging expectations appropriately.

In other words, “Ghost Light’s” brand of quiet quirk won’t induce outrageous laughter or slaps of the knee. However, the film maintains consistent bemusement without being boisterous about its humor, making for a friendlier film whose light lick of fright goes down smooth with good-natured goofs.

Tempering the anticipation teeter-totter further, I’ll add that “Ghost Light” is a mid-card movie best suited to call a streaming service home. It’s not blueprinted for box office blockbusting. It’s unlikely to become anyone’s all-time favorite film. But it looks sharp even when energy isn’t, and the cast exerts effort to keep the pulse lively even when comedy gets quashed by duller drama. Fitting into a nice niche for theater freaks or appreciators of offbeat indies, the low-key legs on “Ghost Light” hit a nimble stride for wispy humor with a small spike of cheeky horror.

Review Score: 65

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