After watching the first 2 seasons of the excellent Spartacus,I took a look at John Hannah's IMDb page,and discovered that he starred in what is currently Lamberto Bava's last film,which led to me getting ready to catch a glimpse of the ghost son.The plot:Recently getting married,Stacey & Mark go to live on Mark's farm in South Africa.Whilst driving down to town one day,Mark gets involved in a car crash that kills him. Experiencing a deep sense of grief,Stacey starts to close herself off from the rest of the world,as she begins to see Mark's "ghost." Noticing that she has not had her period,Stacey goes to the doctor,and discovers that she is pregnant.Returning home with her new son Martin,Stacey finds the ghost of Mark to become increasingly aggressive,as Martin starts to act in a rather strange manner. View on the film:Filmed on location in South Africa,co-writer/(along with Silvia Ranfagni)director Lamberto Bava reveals an unexpected,restrained elegance for what is currently his final film.Largely taking place in one building,Bava and cinematographer Giovanni Canevari grip the title in a tightly coiled terror atmosphere,as long,elegant tracking shots close in on Stacey (played by a terrific Laura Harring,who also appears naked in the film)as Mark (played by a great,burning with rage John Hannah) makes his presence felt.Along with the classy chiller mood,Bava also uses the movie to sum up his career,as the house location and eye-catching in-camera trick shots allows Bava to revisit the lurking in shadows Giallo mystery of A Blade In The Dark,whilst Mark's possession of his son lets Bava return to the gory delights of his Demons series.Focusing on Stacey having to raise Martin on her own,the screenplay by Bava & Silvia Ranfagni pushes parental fear to the extreme,as the writers smartly take an even-handed approach for the first half,with the first sighting of Mark strongly hinting at Stacey suffering from parental stress.After spending the first half hitting the ghostly chills with a real precision,the writers push the tension to the side lines in order to turn Martin into a Bava "mini-Demons",which whilst allow the practical effects makers to cover the screen in outrageous gore,leads to the relationship between Stacey & Mark being seriously damaged,thanks to Mark's psychopathic side completely coming out of left-field,with there not being the slightest hint of the ghostly son that awaits Stacey.

I was strolling through a flea market and found this DVD in a bin for 5 bucks. It looked interesting. I wasn't quite sure what the film had in store for me and I didn't pay attention to the cast, director etc as I would for most horror films. I just liked the cover art, which has gotten me into trouble in the past with notable bombs such as Brotherhood of Blood, ReVamped and other bad ones. I fall for the artwork.This film, although slow and dragging in some spots, delivered some full fledged--top to bottom, spine chills. The "creep factor" in this movie scored with a bullet and had me squirming on my couch.Admittedly, I knew little about the director of this film, but I knew that it had an Italian crew behind it and in my humble opinion, they did a nice job. It was just an unusual story and a well made film. My wife got up and walked out on it because it upset her and believe me, it will upset and scare you at the same time. A well shot, acted and produced film. Plus, the star of this movie was someone I had never seen before and my first impression was that she was a talentless hot bod. Wrong on the talentless aspect, right on the hot bod. She was convincing and a capable actor.I give this film "7 hail Mary's."

"Ghost Son" is Lamberto Bava's best film and, at the same time, also his worst. I suppose that statement requires some slight clarification. It's his best because it's well directed, ambitious, accessible and very stylish, but his worst because it's a dull, unoriginal movie and undeniably a huge letdown to all the real fans of Bava's past efforts. Let's face it: many fans, myself certainly included, wouldn't have been interested in this film judging by the plot, the famous names attached to it and even the boring sounding title. The only motivation here was Lamberto Bava, who brought us large amounts of convoluted Gialli and fun splatter films in the past. "Ghost Son" is a bit of his comeback film, alongside "The Torturer", and although the latter definitely isn't a good film, it at least lives up to his fans' lines of expectations, with excessive amounts of sleaze, blood and sadism. "Ghost Son" is a weak and intolerably soft horror film, even talking in terms of mainstream ghost stories. The emphasis lies too much on sentimentality, and this badly affects the already limited number of horrific & creepily atmospheric moments. The basic premise might feature one or two potentially good ideas, but the film is overall dull and far too clichéd. John Hannah and Laura Harring star as a happy couple, living on a remote ranch in South Africa and breeding horses for a living. The joy and happiness couldn't possibly improve, so naturally something tragic is bound to happen, and it does. Mark dies in a car accident, but the inconsolable Stacey remains at the ranch where she's in constant contact with Mark's spirit. She even gets pregnant with his child, but shortly after baby Martin's birth mysterious events begin to occur. It seems as if Mark's restless and selfish ghost 'possessed' the baby and uses him to encourage Stacy into committing suicide. With all the focus on the couple's relationship, many of the events and sub plots are underdeveloped and/or remains unexplained, like the whole background of the youthful maid Thandi. There's too little action and the only real fright-moments are too obviously borrowed from classic films such as "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" (vomiting green goo, self moving furniture…). Purely talking in terms of horrific entertainment "Ghost Son" is a painful misfire, but it has to be said, it's a beautiful and enchanting looking failure. The cinematography is extremely elegant and many camera angles are truly inventive and suggestive. The moody score sometimes even manages to create an ominous atmosphere even though there's nothing of any significance happening on screen. There are several beautiful images of the South African wildlife to admire but, if that interests you, I suppose you're better off watching National Geographic instead. Not much to recommend here. Fans of atmosphere-driven ghost stories have much better options to choose from and die-hard Bava fanatics are advised to (re-)watch "Demons", "Macabre" or "Blade in the Dark".

Alas, it seems that the golden times of stylish Italian cinema have sunk into oblivion. And the recent brainchild of celebrated filmmaker Lamberto Bava is yet another obvious proof to that assumption.I felt lucky to watch many films from this prolific director (like Body Puzzle, Delerium, Macabre and both Demons). Albeit not entirely satisfying they have never been that dull.A suspicion that this new entry to my DVD collection was money thrown to the winds arose shortly in the aftermath of the car crash scene exhibiting an awkward and unlikely position of the body under the flip-over car.And the sense of shallowness grew up in the course of the ponderously narrated chain of events that followed.Dumb dialogs, suspenseless script and a total waste of talents from the international cast. The only character that provided more or less passable performance was the mischievous Mark's son juicing up the entire boredom.Unfortunately, Mario's son job on all accounts could hardly be hailed.I look forward to seeing his Murder House hopefully expected to be an improvement.