User Reviews

Plot: Emily is a ghost and every day she walks the halls of her house. She hears a voice, the voice of Sylvia, who is trying to help guide her out of there.

Our thoughts: I've been watching several ghost movies lately, gone back to a few old and great ones (such as "The Changeling") and checked out a few I hadn't seen before. Ghost stories have always managed to creep me out the most, outside of things based on reality (since that's more plausible). Growing up I always got the chills imagining stuff like a white shape wandering down the halls. Everyone has probably experienced something strange in their lives. While most will try to find logical reason, I have always been open to it. Or rather, I find things I can't explain to be interesting, albeit a bit scary. But let's face it, the best ghost stories have been told. We've had some alright ones - I'll even admit that "Insidious" had potential, but REALLY went down hill fast. The best one in recent memory is "Lake Mungo" (some people will hate me for bringing it up again, but I don't care). But what do all of these have in common? They are horror stories, focusing on people being scared of ghosts. What I have for review today is the opposite of this, and quite frankly I think it's one of the best ghost stories I have ever seen.

The plot is extremely simple to explain: the title says it all. "I Am a Ghost" is about a ghost, trapped in the house she once lived in. She repeats every day in similar fashion. But there is someone on the other side ("our side") trying to help guide her out of there. This is an easy thing to grasp, and in some ways you might think of "The Others", but they couldn't be more different!

First of all, this is a drama. It's an extremely emotional and invested look into how it could be for a ghost. They might be victims and not out to scare us. Maybe they're as scared as we are! Our lead, Emily, is a very nice young girl. We quickly fall for her because of her innocence, and the longer we follow her the more curious we are about what happened to her when she was alive. And how will she be able to leave the afterlife? I think a movie like this saves itself by working with repetitions. Being a ghost movie, we expect repetitions so it never comes off as annoying. Rather we are trying to puzzle things together for every repeat and see how things slowly change. The most interesting scenes here are actually dialogue-driven, and that speaks highly of how well-written the movie is.

H.P. Mendoza has, overall, managed to craft an experience that I believe in. If there are ghosts, then I think this is how it is. I find it to be nearly spotless in terms of style, writing, directing, acting, the story and how it all unfolds slowly. It helps us identify with a ghost, not only through the character but in every detail. This is one of those cases where you get a sense that everything has been puzzled together perfectly during production. Even the cinematography helps us accept that we're in the afterlife - exactly how it does that I don't know, but it's a very slick movie. At times it's as if the camera was floating. Not to mention the movie is filtered to feel like an old photograph. Anna Ishida is great as Emily, and obviously the movie would've fallen flat if the lead actress couldn't play the part. There is so much about Anna Ishida that makes her perfect for the part, but I think the main reason I could accept her in the part was because of her innocent, confused eyes. The house itself has an old, charming look - and is very much a creepy place for a ghost story (even though it's not specifically creepy).

While I write this, I feel angry because I can't capture how fantastic the movie is in my own writing. "I Am a Ghost" grabbed me from the beginning, and there wasn't a second that I wasn't in awe. This is not a gory, violent, eccentric or even that experimental movie, but a perfectly executed drama about a ghost. It's the perfect ghost story because it takes time to solve the puzzle, and brings up so many points about ghosts that I've always wondered about. Most importantly: if ghosts exist, what is it like to be one? It's not going for chills, scares or even survival (which I suppose is the primal goal for every horror movie). Because it ignores all of that, we get time to invest ourselves to solve the puzzle of how to get Emily out of there, and for once we sit down and THINK. There is only one little thing that I can class as negative, and that was an effect towards the end. By then we're very into it, so at first you'll feel like you've came out of it again. But don't worry, this is where it shows an element of horror and soon you'll be as invested as you were the minute before.

I love "I Am a Ghost", and if there is ONE ghost story to watch this year (in many years, really), then this is it. You can ignore every "Paranormal Activity" movie completely, because this has them beat before the title page appears. Whatever happens in H.P. Mendoza's career from now on, he will always be the man behind "I Am a Ghost" and I hope he takes pride in that fact. "I Am a Ghost" is an incredible experience, a clever twist on ghost stories, and most of all a very sad drama that you will find yourself invested deeply in.

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I liked this a lot. Clever story and well produced on such a small budget.

The repetitions were just beginning to wear on me, when the "closing off" happened. The mystery was gradually revealed, and the final conflict came quickly. The protagonist has an unpleasant past, but the character is sympathetic so I was rooting for her.

A few criticisms. I suspected the medium was untrustworthy, but her character was disappointingly straight. There was no reason she wouldn't have known the full story from the start - maybe giving her a motive to conceal the truth would have added an extra layer to the story. Dialogue needed more work - I thought the protag spoke a bit modern, and it didn't seem right when the demon said she couldn't "handle" the pain or fear or whatever. There are some anomalies over the time period, and the intriguing comment about her running out of the room when she'd been told how long ago she died was not addressed. The demon's first appearance is Japan style scary, but he looks silly in the final scene. And the end was a bit mysterious - would have been more satisfying by reaching the logical conclusion of the medium's advice.

Would have been a 9 except for that. Looks like the director is an all rounder, so good job.

ps. If the medium had turned out to be the real demon ...

Obviously low budget, which I fine. I've seen many good low budget films. But first off, this film starts very slow. You watch the girl do the same things over and over for about 30 minutes or more before anything new happens. Also, based on how she is dressed, you assume she's been dead for hundreds of years but doesn't talk like it nor does she seem to have an issue with using modern appliances, electricity and indoor plumbing. When she finally starts to figure out what is going it is quick to reach a confusing ending.

Emily was possessed by a demon and the ending that left YOU hanging, (not me), was the exorcism of the demon. Notice the demon in the mirror that Emily smashed with her head said, "Your God isn't real!"

The slow moving, repetitive beginning was overkill. They could have showed the routine a couple less times, or made the movie longer than 1:15 if those scenes needed to be included, so it didn't have to be so seemingly rushed near the end, like the production ran out of money and they had to wrap it quick.

Definitely one of the stranger films that I've seen in a long time. A little too "artsy" for my taste.

This was basically a 75 minute film that contained about 15 minutes of unique footage that simply repeated itself over and over (and over and over again).

At first, the viewer is exposed to a series of short scenes in one of about 5 or 6 different locations in the house. In the beginning, these repeating scenes did almost nothing to advance the story. Then slowly, as Emily learns what she is and what happened to her, the scenes begin to expand and change, just enough to reveal a bit more of the story.

This continues for what seems to be an eternity (I guess if you're a ghost, eternity isn't that long) until the end when Emily comes to grips with what has happened to her and she begins the process of "moving on". Unfortunately, it ends before we actually see Emily's final transition and leaves you with assumptions of what probably happened. Finally, you are left to wonder "what the *@#$ did I just watch?."

I will say that Anna Ishida gave a good performance as the main character of Emily, considering the material that she was working with. But her performance wasn't quite enough to save the film.

I hate to disparage independent films that are attempting to do something "against the grain" in contemporary horror. I appreciate that "I Am A Ghost" is attempting to be a more intelligent, dialog driven film than the usual horror drivel, but Its many flaws compel me to write something to balance out the reviews I saw which, preposterously, likened it to Kubrick, Bergman and Hitchcock, or even "Lake Mungo." Beyond some interesting applications of After Effects, there is very little style, let alone Kubrick's. The only thing that can be compared to Bergman is the furniture. There is nothing the least bit Hitchcock about any of it. All in all, it feels like the first project of some competent filmmakers with good taste but not particularly good writing skills. Worse, it suffers from some basic logic problems and apparent anachronisms that, rather than elevating it into something fantastic or dream-like, are simply distracting. When did the main character die? The fashion and interior decoration in the ghost's remembered vision of the house (which is inexplicably the same furniture that exists in the clairvoyant's future time-line...did all future residents of the house just keep the same furniture, including the carpet on which an insane woman was stabbed to death?) appears to be from the late 19th century or even earlier. And yet the character listens to radio from the 1930s and there is a reference to electro convulsive therapy which didn't happen in the States until at least the 1940s. Perhaps this can be explained with some alternate interpretation of the ending, but any clues leading to that explanation would be so obscure that even a fan of Bergman would find it baffling. Add to this a ridiculously humorous "monster" (a nude man in gray body paint with a face manipulated by computer into something the Japanese might have been bored by twenty years ago), dialog that confuses awkward formality for intelligence, and moments such as the villain, in response to the heroine's prayers, menacingly proclaiming "Your god is dead," (shades of "Hellraiser), and it begins to become clear that this is, in fact, not the "original," "artsy," "sophisticated" movie that it's being represented as in reviews. Even the plot is nothing new to anyone with passing knowledge of ghost stories. Don't get me wrong, this isn't absolute trash, but if you are an intelligent film fan looking for something sophisticated and original, wait until it's on Netflix...

This was hands down the worst movie I have ever seen. From the woman's dress that was made out of a 5 count bed sheet, to her awful wig that was bought at the dollar store, to the full frontal of a...man demon thing? I watched this hoping to be actually scared, instead of laughing and constantly asking myself "WHY?" The voice of the human woman was horrible and grating. She sounded like she was just reading her lines off of the script. Very stiff. It was more like a high school play than anything. Actually I think a high school play would have pulled this off better. Just see The Others instead. Same general idea, better acting and costumes as well. And yes I know this was made on a $10,000 budget blah blah blah, but you can get a better dress than that puffed sleeve smock she wore. I wasted 2 hours of life, and they wasted $10,000. What a piece of garbage. Kudos for filming an entire movie with a first generation iPhone, though!

This is the matching bookend for 'I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House,' and from me, a Ghost Story writer, that is the highest compliment I can give. I only give 9 stars because I feel the last few minutes of the movie with the demon could have been less in-your-face; more subtle. This is a truly unique film well worth the watch.

It is true that the first 30 or so minutes are slow. Mendoza takes his time setting up Emily's world. If you pay any attention, you'll notice that the beginning scenes aren't repeating. While Emily is doing the same action (cooking breakfast, cleaning) the details change every time. You have to be an active viewer. If you expect to be spoon fed all the answers, don't waste your time with I AM A GHOST.

Anna Ishida carries the movies on her shoulders. Besides the voice of an unseen medium, all you see is Anna. She deserves every credit for making this movie work. Without her strong performance (and Mendoza's directing), this movie would not work.

Mendoza uses music to add suspense and manipulate the tone of the film. There's a lot of quiet moments made better by the music. "Emily's Theme" adds to the atmosphere.

There is some very brutal imagery in the last act. If this was rated by the MPAA, it would receive a R.

Mendoza loves his details. This is his first horror, and I look forward to seeing what he does next.