Movies
‘Ghost Game’ Review – High-Risk Internet Challenge Horror Movie Warns Against Strangers Online
These days it seems like everyone is on TikTok or has a YouTube channel. Simply talking to a camera and posting the video online will get you likes and follows and can also be your ticket to being an internet celebrity, which may or may not be a good thing. Far too many people are willing to do whatever it takes for online fame. There have been countless internet challenges leading people to film themselves doing all sorts of outrageous things, sometimes resulting in injury or death. In the age of internet culture, people have no shame and no fear, especially if it will make them famous.
In Epic Pictures’ Ghost Game, not too long after meeting on a dating app, deciding they were compatible and moving in together, Vin (Zaen Haidar) discovers his new girlfriend, Laura (Kia Dorsey), has been secretly breaking into houses at night to play the Ghost Game internet challenge. Vin isn’t thrilled to learn that Laura’s partner in the game, Adrian (Sam Lukowski), is an obnoxious asshole willing to do anything for views and likes, maybe even commit violence. The game consists of a dare to break into a house, called a haunt, and film yourself trying to make the homeowner think their house is haunted, while also living in the house undetected. While playing the game, participants wear different kinds of scary masks, with Laura donning a glow-in-the-dark devil mask and Adrian choosing a Lucha Libre mask to hide his identity. Vin doesn’t feel any better about Laura playing the game when she tells him she looks up to the mysterious online community leader Mr. Whatley, who sets the rules for the game and encourages players to take their hauntings to the next level.
Ghost Game boasts a powerhouse creative team, who are all well-known in the world of independent genre film. Ghost Game is written by Adam Cesare (Last Night at Terrace Lanes, Clown in a Cornfield), and directed by Jill “Sixx” Gevargizian, known for the excellent short films 42 Counts (2018) and One Last Meal (2019), as well as the short film turned feature film The Stylist (2020), with Eduardo Sánchez (The Blair Witch Project) serving as executive producer.
When Laura tells Vin about her plans to break into Halton House, a home that is believed to be haunted by the family who tragically died there, he insists on playing Ghost Game with her. The new owners of Halton House, Pete Trammel (Michael C. Williams), his wife Meg (Emily Bennett), and their daughter Sam (Vienna Maas) are about to move in, so Laura and Vin will have to break in and get cameras set up around the house without being caught. This is a much more dangerous version of the game than Laura has ever played before and the first time she has played in a haunted location. What Laura and Vin don’t know is that they aren’t just playing for likes and follows online, they’re playing for their lives.
Ghost Game features an engaging story and impressive performances from the entire cast, but Haidar and Dorsey are especially notable as Vin and Laura, who seem to have a genuine camaraderie. Halton House has all the necessary components of a haunted house and even a few jump scares; there is an abundance of cobwebs; doors slam on their own; the lights flicker.
Spectacular bloody practical effects, a foreboding score, and uncertainty about what will happen next contribute to the consistently unsettling mood of the film.
Ghost Game benefits from exceptional direction and timely commentary about the dangers of trusting everyone you meet online. Ultimately, Ghost Game is an effectively spooky haunted house movie which warns that it might not be the things that go bump in the night we should be afraid of; sometimes people are much scarier.
Ghost Game had its World Premiere at Panic Fest 2024, which offered a hybrid festival this year.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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