Cover Art

Credits

Director: Johnny Yong Bosch, Koichi Sakamoto Starring: Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, Joel Greco, Matt Moore, Jonathan Cruz Screenplay: Karan Ashley, Ron Day, Tim Grace Music: Cody Westheimer Tagline: Only his victims know why... Country: USA

Speaking of dreams, this movie is so absurd, I often thought we were off on a dream sequence, but no, we weren't. This is all "really" happening. 10 years ago, a young, abused, boy named Devon disappeared and his parents were brutally beaten to death. Devon is also believed to be dead, but rumour has it he can sometimes be seen, covered in the blood, an ethereal presence. But Devon wasn't killed, he was taken away and confined. Evidently tired of being locked away, Devon fashions himself a bat with a bandsaw blade in it, and knocks out his captor. Free, Devon begins venting his anger on seemingly random people.

A school has also just been refurbished and opened as a high school, which is where we find our heroes. Our heroine saw Devon years ago after the murders, and has been troubled by it ever since. She's having slight problems adjusting to the fact that her new school has opened across the street from Devon's old house, and when she starts seeing Devon again, her friends are reluctant to believe that he's back.

Not since The Devonsville Terror has a movie been this good. The characters have weird names (except Devon, obviously), which just further enhances the idea that Devon's Ghost is taking place in Bizarro World. A place where a girl gets sent to the principal for having a nightmare. A place where someone will deliberately leave on a disturbing TV broadcast, but then apologise that it was on. A place where the words "best friend" must have some other meaning than here on planet Earth. A place where people seem to go to high school until the age of 35. In fact, once you start asking why in terms of this movie's plot, you'll never really get a chance to stop. The only other movie I can think of with so many story and logic flaws per scene is The Lost World, but at least that had big dinosaurs eating things.

The acting levels vary, but the killer's actually better than expected, bringing a good frenetic energy to the part. He also had very few lines, which may have helped. The film is populated with non-jokes, but, then again, maybe they'd be funny in Bizarro World. The budget doesn't seem to have been high enough for blood (despite getting a US R rating for "bloody violence through out"), which is a bit of a downside for a slasher, as is the careless lack of nudity. The Power Rangers connection does pay off in the form of some relatively good fight scenes. The fights are ludicrous in terms of the story, but as action set pieces, they're not too bad.