“It’s Your Ghost Now”
Main cast: Clark Freeman, Annette O’Toole
Director: Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton
Miles Grissom (Clark Freeman, YELLOWBRICKROAD) keeps having the same nightmare: trapped in a car with no control over the wheel or the pedals, the car speeds up until it hits something, and Miles wakes up in a cold sweat. Miles lives in constant fear of death. Miles lives in fear of a LOT of things. Welcome to WE GO ON.
Having recently an inheritance from an aunt, Miles decides to use half the money to either confirm his fears or put them to rest. He takes out an ad in the paper, offering $30,000 to anyone who can provide definite proof of life after death.
Upon seeing the ad, his mother Charlotte (Annette O’Toole, from being Annette O’Toole) comes to stay with him and help him through the process of whittling down the submissions. After searching countless videos and letters, Miles thinks he has three good prospects.
First, he interviews the psychologist (John Glover, Smallville). Then he visits the psychic (Giovanna Zacarias, THE LEGEND OF ZORO). Then he visits the entrepreneur who claims to have a rare Tibetan artifact that can provide the proof Miles seeks. They all fail to impress.
It seems Miles is at the end of his list. Except, there was one phone call he received that claimed to be relaying a message from the other side … Miles does a little digging and discovers this one might just be the thing he’s looking for.
When he meets up with the caller—never minding the fact he never gave out his number, nor did his phone ever ring for this call—Miles’s life is changed forever. And maybe that psychic wasn’t so off the mark, after all.
I enjoyed this movie a lot. I wouldn’t say it’s a strong HORROR movie, but it was well-acted and the story was engaging from start to finish. Freeman is fun to watch and has a very natural approach, so you never see the acting and instead you just watch this real guy navigate the twists and turns of the events in his life.
WE GO ON was written and directed by the pair of Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton, the duo responsible for one of my favorite horror movies, YELLOWBRICKROAD, and while this one isn’t quite as off the beaten path and inventive, WE GO ON shows their previous effort wasn’t a fluke: these two know how to write a strong script and make an even stronger movie. It doesn’t hurt that the people making the movie were also the people editing the movie. Anyone who creates story for a living can tell you that editing is key. A good editor can turn mediocre into masterful, and these two have got the goods.
WE GO ON is a ghost story that doesn’t rely too heavily on the ghosts, but even at this subdued level gave me pause before heading upstairs to bed that night. They aren’t working with much here, but they make full use of what they’ve got on hand and, through excellent camera work and, again, great editing, they turn out a pretty damn good product. I think I would classify it as more “human interest drama that relies on ghosts” rather than “ghost story”, but that could just be my jaded perspective.
Either way, I liked WE GO ON and, in retrospect, really can’t find anything negative to say about it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I have a lot GLOWING to say about it, either. It was well-made, but I was watching it on Shudder, the horror movie streamer, and for me, in that company, I just felt it should have been heavier on the horror side and I just wasn’t getting that from this movie, even when I felt I should be.
I think Holland and Mitton are making good movies that fit into the “horror” genre, I just don’t find them necessarily … horrible, you know?
That being said, I think that if you’re a horror newbie and you want to ease your way into the genre, this might be the movie to do it with. If fact, if you’re a horror lightweight, this just might be the scariest movie you’ve ever seen. And for horror heavyweights whom nothing scares … this probably won’t either, but it was still a pretty good movie anyway.
I would easily recommend WE GO ON, just check your expectations at the door and enjoy the movie for what it is instead of always looking for what it’s not.
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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