Movies
[Review] ‘Ghost Team’ is Painfully Unfunny
Those who have already decided that the new Ghostbusters wasn’t for them, it looked as if they had another option: Oliver Irving’s Ghost Team.
Irving co-wrote the new comedy with Peter Warren in which a paranormal-obsessed man (Napoleon Dynamite‘s Jon Heder) mounts his own investigation into the beyond with his depressed best friend (Harold and Kumar‘s David Krumholtz), a cable access medium (“Broad City’s” Paul W. Downs), an overeager security guard (Jeepers Creepers‘ Justin Long), and a god-awful psychic (“Strangers With Candy’s” Amy Sedaris).
Ghost Team not only boasted the perfect low budget comedy bro-casting, but a concept that appeared to be the low budget counterpart to Ghostbusters. Unfortunately, the filmmakers lied to you.
From laughs to capturing spooks on camera, Ghost Team fails to deliver on any promise.
Albiet a bit of a spoiler, but quite necessary in explaining why Bloody Disgusting readers should avoid this title, there are no ghosts in Ghost Team. Yes, they go hunting for the supernatural, but there’s nothing remotely spooky here. So, if it’s not scary, it’s funny, right? No. Ghost Team has one of the better low budget comedy casts in recent memory and yet, somehow, Irving manages to deliver zero laughs. It’s painfully unfunny to the point of boredom. It’s so bad that I have to question whether or not there was even a script; is it possible they improvised everything? And if this is the truth, it makes it look as if the aforementioned cast has zero talent, which I refuse to believe (this would destroy my world).
The only thing that ties everything together is that Irving and Warren attempt to offer redemption to the unlikely heroes who are otherwise failures in their everyday lives. It comes as a wasted effort for the reasons mentioned above.
Ghost Team is the worst of independent releases in that it’s going to be successful based on the names boasted on the cover, yet leave every single viewer disappointed. There’s middle of the road and there’s this, which is a road that’s yet to be paved. The only thing scary here is that someone may actually pay hard-earned money to rent this.
Ghost Team is now exclusively on Google Play with a theatrical run set for August 12th.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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