Five American GIs get assigned to hold a French chateau the Nazi High Command abandoned. Naturally, the Nazis committed atrocities there, so the former inhabitants are now pissed-off ghosts. As the GIs accept that's a problem, and not them hallucinating, they decide they need to try and help the dead rest. Sure, the ghosts killed the shit out of some Nazis that showed up trying to retake the chateau - always fun to see - but they don't seem particularly fond of the Americans, either.
That is a solid premise for a decent if unexceptional horror movie. The GIs are mostly broad strokes - the bookish one, the sniper that seems a little off, the fresh-faced lieutenant, the big guy - and maybe not totally stable. They blow a Nazi jeep at one point and the big guy finds the one still able to stand and demands he fistfight him. Meanwhile the sniper is taking the gold teeth out of the dead Nazis. Which he presents to a Jewish mother and son they see fleeing somewhere as part of a procession, but still. The movie also seems to almost forget about one of them for a while. So you aren't too surprised when he dies, since it doesn't seem like they had anything else for him.
There's a hint of mystery about the story, about the soldiers. Maybe it's just stress of war, what they've seen, and maybe it's something else. Some of them are acting secretive. Could be a lot of reasons why. Movie does a lot of jump scares and bits where you see something indistinctly in the background while the character isn't looking. Because you aren't sure just how the ghosts feel about the Americans, there's an uncertain element that makes it interesting. Can they figure this out before they all die?
Then in the last 20 minutes, the movie goes completely stupid, and I am going to spoil it, because it deserves it.
The soldiers are actually from our time, or something like it. They were serving in Afghanistan, meant to pick up a doctor that had been helping locate ISIS members for drone strikes because his cover's blown, when ISIS guys showed up in enough numbers the five of them stood by and let the family be killed. Except for the mother, who tried to blow the five of them up and also cursed them as she died. They were placed in some kind of virtual-reality simulation with each other to help their minds heal.
Except, because of the curse or something, they actually carried the angry ghosts of the dead family with them into the simulation, and the ghosts are killing them in there. Somehow. The lieutenant is the only one who somehow wakes up to be info-dumped all this by the doctors, and he goes back in so he can save the others. And that's basically where the movie ends. Him waking up around the same campfire as at the start, staring at a shadowy figure smoking a cigarette and watching him. I don't know if he even remembers that he's in a simulation.
Holy shit, that completely tanked that movie for me. Like, it's actually impressive how fast it caught on fire and careened off a cliff.
3 comments:
Wow. This seemed like it might be a mix of R-Point and The Keep up to that twist.
Don't think I've seen either of those. I was definitely enjoying it, getting into the mystery, and then - splat. M. Night Shaymalan level twist right there. Blech.
If you're going to see either, go for R-Point. The Keep is interesting but deeply flawed; the author did a graphic novel adaptation that he said was closer to how the film was supposed to be.
It's probably still better than Ghosts of War, mind.
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