"Pay the Ghost" Review - Written by Tim Hellman

'PAY THE GHOST': Two Stars (Out of Five)

Nicolas Cage stars in yet another low-budget B-horror flick! In this one he plays a professor, obsessed with finding his abducted son; who appears to have been taken by spirits from beyond the grave. The film was directed by Uli Edel and written by Dan Kay; it's based on a novella by Tim Lebbon. It costars Sarah Wayne Callies (of 'THE WALKING DEAD' fame), Lyriq Bent, Veronica Ferres and Jack Fulton. It's a pretty bad movie; but about what you'd expect (these days) from Nicolas Cage.

Cage plays Mike Lawford; a happily married professor, who just achieved tenure; at the university he works at. While taking his son, Charlie (Fulton), to a Halloween parade one year, the boy mysteriously goes missing. Mike's wife, Kristen (Wayne Callies), is so angered by their loss, that she leaves her husband; while Mike continues to obsess over finding him, for the entire next year. Halloween comes around again; and it becomes more and more apparent, that Charlie was taken by angry spirits.

The movie is filled with a lot of bad cheesy melodrama, and lackluster suspense; there are some decent effects though. I definitely wouldn't say the film is scary at all, even when it tries it's hardest to be, and the story is just plain boring. Cage also gives a pretty bad and unmemorable performance; it's not even bad in an over-the-top and entertaining way (like he usually does). The movie isn't completely horrible, but it is forgettable; which is often even worse