Ah Nicolas Cage, I just can’t quit you. Pay the Ghost is a bad movie, but it is an entertaining bad movie.
At its outset Pay the Ghost is just you average paranormal ghost movie, although Nic Cage’s mere presence changed my expectations from the start. As it goes on it get closer and closer to hopping the rails, and by the end that train has broken free and flown away.
I knew this movie would be good when the trailer cut to a random shot of a vulture squawking into the camera. Vultures are all over this movie and I have no idea why Within the movie I mean. Clearly either the director or some producer just had a thing for vultures.
For what this movie is, the vultures only add to the experience.
There are a lot of weird commonalities between this and Cage’s The Wicker Man (2006): Kids wearing masks, Celtic paganism, and a quest for a missing child.
This movie didn’t so much get a limited release as it was completely buries with a token theatrical release. This is a movie that exists for the die hard Nicholas Cage fans to watch on Netflix. By those standards I’d say this movie is a success. It’s super dumb, but very watchable and funny. The best part of seeing this movie for me was the back and forth laughter between me and my friend and the two women sitting behind us in the theater. It has those moments where you can’t help but laugh at what’s happening on screen.
It’s a marvel how helpful everyone Cage approaches is. The most amazing of which is a blind homeless man who just happens to know everything about this supernatural event, in a very matter of fact way, and just happens o have a flashlight to give to Cage right as he needs one.
Pay the Ghost is exactly what I wanted from it.
