A Ghost Waits (Special Edition): Blu-Ray Review

Now available on Blu-ray is last year’s A Ghost Waits, which is more of a love story than actual horror. This film took me by surprise when I first caught it. Instead of scares, Adam Stovall delivers an emotional and often sweet, haunted house story, which is something I can’t say I see too often.

Jack (MacLeod Andrews) is just your average handyman. Most of the time, he inspects houses for a property management company. The latest property Jack as been assigned to deal with has a strange problem. People seem to move out soon after they move in, with no explanation given. Jack moves into the house in-order-to try and grasp a better understanding of what is scaring people off. It doesn’t take too long for him to figure it out. There is a ghost named Muriel (Natalie Walker) residing in the home and it is her job to scare people her way. When I say job, I mean it. She is employed to haunt houses.

What happens is that Jack and Muriel develop a friendship that turns into something much deeper. This is where A Ghost Waits shines. The relationship between the mortal and ghost is something truly, beautiful and takes the characters in directions that I did not see coming. Andrews and Walker are great together, but it is Stovall and his co-writers that really deliver a unique story that has a little something for everyone. Having been shot in black and white ads to the feel of the film as well.

I highly recommend A Ghost Waits, which feels like a cross between Beetlejuice and Clerks. The Blu-ray from Arrow comes with a ton of bonus materials as well.

Bonus Materials:

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Audio commentary by writer/director Adam Stovall
• Audio commentary by Adam Stovall and MacLeod Andrews
• Audio commentary by the cast and crew
• Humanity and the Afterlife in ‘A Ghost Waits’, a new video essay by Isabel Custodio exploring the film’s themes and cinematic forebears
• Eight interviews with cast and crew moderated by critic and programmer tt stern-enzi
• Interview and post-film Q&A with Adam Stovall moderated by Alan Jones at Frightfest Glasgow 2020
• Outtakes
• Easter eggs
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Craig Ian Mann

By: Marc Ferman