Ghost of the Needle (2003)

So, tonight I'm planning on curling up on the couch, my black cat Havoc on one side, my wonderful boyfriend on the other and a big bowl of popcorn (perhaps even kettle corn!) on my lap to watch Dark Remains. I've been expectantly waiting for this particular movie to arrive after suffering a "very long wait" on my Netflix queue. Tonight, it should be at home!

Before I watched this film, I wanted to get a little taste of what I had in store. I ordered a film with the same director as Dark Remains, entitled Ghost of the Needle. I'm not sure what I was expecting, probably a badly done serial killer indie with lots of typical blood and misogyny. I couldn't have been more wrong. Ghost of the Needle proved to be a genuinely scary and taut movie, filled with suspense the entire way through.

A landscape photographer named Jacob relishes in taking girls back to his studio, conveniently located in the basement of an abandoned factory that his father owns. Once there, he injects them with a poison and takes photographs of their propped up, dead bodies before vacuum-sealing them in plastic. His agent has lined up an art show for him that will increase his exposure, but Jacob is sketchy about showing his private collection of gorgeous black and white landscapes. Still, his agent bullies him into doing it. One condition is that he must take a picture of a particular bridge at exactly noon on a specific day for the client. When Jacob arrives there, he meets Aimee, whom he takes back to his lair. She is a feisty thing, though, and doesn't give up without a fight. Jacob takes a tumble down the stairs while chasing her and takes quite a hit to the noggin'. When he wakes up he begins experiencing vivid hallucinations which lead him to believe that those he has murdered are out to get him...His client and his wife are somehow involved, and it seems that even his own father knows to much. Is Jacob losing his mind or are there sinister forces out for revenge?

I cannot think of one gosh darn bad thing about this movie, which makes me super-duper excited to see the director's (Brian Avenet-Bradley) third movie, Dark Remains. I kept jumping throughout the whole movie and was wholly engrossed in what was happening on-screen. I didn't even wanna get up to go to the bathroom because that would mean pausing the creepy sucker!

Everything was great about it, from the acting to the directing to the beautiful cinematography. I was a bit sketchy when I saw that Avenet-Bradley was also starring in the film as Jacob, but he pulled off both the direction and the character of Jacob flawlessly! For an independent film, I was mightily impressed with the overall production. Beautiful and creepy lighting, gorgeous cinematography, believable acting and an interesting and engaging story to pull everything together is what you can expect from Ghost of the Needle. The score and overall sound of the flick were great as well and really lend themselves to the at-times surreal atmosphere.

If you are looking for a suspenseful and gripping story that'll make you jump sky-high in your seat, look no further than this wonderfully done independent feature. I can't wait to see what Avenet-Bradley does next!

Order it on Amazon!