The Ghost Writer

This review was first published after The Ghost Writer was screened at London FrightFest 2022, and is slightly amended.

The rather unpleasant writer Gilliger (Luke Mably), the son of his far more acclaimed (and successful) father Irwin (Robert Portal) has set out for the country retreat that was left him in the will for inspiration. His books aren’t selling and his agent is hoping that this move will prove inspirational.

As well as his laptop Gilliger arrives at the house with bottles of booze, which he knows he shouldn’t have. He nevertheless drinks himself to sleep over his laptop waking up with the typical drunk’s regret.

With memories and flashbacks to his father and shots of axes and shotguns, the viewer and Gilliger are drip fed portents. Not getting anywhere fast Gilliger finds a rolled-up manuscript of an unpublished novel by his father in the sink wastepipe.

Reading it he realises its good, very good and so he decides that it shouldn’t go to waste. Settling down to write he’s interrupted by a woman at the door Jane (Andrea Deck) who barges in as if they know each other. Bemused he asks her to leave only to later find her in his bed. Stranger still he later meets up with Patrick (Brendan Patricks) who is looking for him but obviously has something to do with Jane.

Connected to all this the estate agent who is trying to sell the property, but who also has connections to Gilliger's father. These issues, his drinking and memories (and warnings) of his father begin to take their toll on him mentally, as he slowly builds up in his mind, what is going on.

The Ghost Writer feels as if it takes its time to get into its stride but is actually carefully crafted by director Paul Wilkins from a script by Guy Fee, building and maintaining a creepy atmosphere throughout. And that’s with characters who aren’t that sympathetic. Though there's an element of misdirection as stories and timelines begin to converge.

The lonely cottage setting helps create a spooky atmosphere however the film is as much psychological as spectral. And here Mably is very good in a role that is a bit if a cliché - the drunk writer - as he struggles with writer's block, the visitations and that mental realisation that he doesn't measure up to his father.

The Ghost Writer is now available on digital platforms.