Spirithunter (2004)

Cast:

Jonathan T. Floyd is Chris Sendak
William Stanford Davis is Gabe
Tara Thomson is Mercedes
Jamie Terwilliger is Jennifer
Toni Wynne is Diana Sendak

What the box says:

Chris Sendak (Jonathan T. Floyd) is a man with a colorful past, if only he knew what it was. Death has taken his body and his memories as he enters the realm of the supernatural, unseen by the living. He'll soon need to figure out what happened to him, because knowing is the key to his survival in the afterlife! Dogging his steps throughout his seach is a malevolent entity known as the Spirit Hunter, determined to destroy all hope of redemption for Chris.

Plot:

In the woods, some guys are digging a hole to bury something. That is a plot point which cuts to Chris waking up in a place full of snakes, and he's chased by the Grim Reaper. A woman, Mercedes, runs into him. Well, she's being chased by some French guys.

In a bar, Chris is seen by a drunk guy but not the bartender. Gabe, another guy, explains to Chris that's actually dead. (By the way, Chris doesn't remember his name at this point to save from calling him guy for most of this description, he's got his name right now...) Since Chris is dead, he must find his body before it's too late. Gabe explains that Chris will start to regain his memories and must not get caught by the Spirit Hunter.

Chris starts getting some flashbacks about a woman in an ambulance.

Heading off, Chris winds up at fake psychic's place where the customer can see Chris.

Chris runs into Mercedes again. She needs him to help her sneak into a motel to get her stuff out. Chris realizes she has her entire memory. They see some woman OD and see her carried off by the bouncer and boss.

Mercedes explains to Chris how she was involved with the Duke of Orleans and how the duchess had her killed. The Spirit Hunter appears and grabs Mercedes.

Chris gets another flashback of his first meeting with his future wife. He heads to the cemetery and finds another ghost, Paul. This guy remembers Chiris was a prosecutor.

Chris runs into a church where asome sort of blue energy aura zaps him which allows recall all his memories. Chris recalls the last case he was working on. It involved Joshua Kent, a guy accused of killing his parents. In the case, the prosecutor disappeared.

Chris heads to his last girlfriend's paratment. He learns that Jennifer happens to be Joshua Kent's sister. Jennifer comes in to the apartment and finds the place torn up and amessage how she's being watched...

Jennifer meets her brother who convinced her to seduce Chris. They head off to search for Chris's body. A flashback shows Chris being killed. Mercedes reappears to Chris and tries to seduce him. He refuses her.

At the motel, Jennifer draws a gun . Chris wants his body. Finally, Joshua sees Chris. Jennifer shoots Joshua and kills him. Tries shooting Chris to no avail. She runs off and gets run over.

Waking up, Chris tells her to touch her body. The Spirit hunter gets Joshua. The blue aura gets Jennifer. Gabe pops up. He claims he always knew where Chris's body was. Takes Chris to where the body is hidden. Chris starts to dig it up when he sees Diana, his wife. Gabe tries to convince to ignore Diana. Chris goes to Diana. Let the explosion ensue.

On a beach, Chris wakes up and hears cries of anguish in the distance. He finds Diana who explains the Spirit Hunter was deception and so was Gabe. By Chris avoiding the body he wasn't sentback. Diana came to take him on...

What I say:

A reviewer always has the threat hanging overhead of running out of movies for reviewing material. Well, theoretically, it is possible. My Ten of fans may get tired of reading one of my reviews someone else has done far better elsewhere...A lot of movies have been done by far better reviewers. However, we all still have the odds of dumb luck strucking us like a lightning strike with the movies that very few others have endured. Finding a 2004 movie that is almost complete unknown on IMDB is a very low probability.

The mythology of monsters shouldn't be so puzzled. Vampires stay in dark, drink blood, etc...Changing their abilities throughout the movie just makes it even harder to follow. Ghosts randomly appear to be seen by bouncers and drunks. Ghosts have to be let into places. Wouldn't the whole intangibility or invisblity get you into places pretty easily?

The last 10 years hasn't had too many different types of ghost movies other than the 2 main types of ghost movies: "Ghost with a TWIST ending, (the M. Night Shamalan movie)" or the American remake of the Japanesse ghost movie. A ghost having to find their physical body hasn't been done in other movies as many times as they haunt down those who killed them. Carnival of Souls and SoulTaker.

Most movies from the last 15 years or so have been edging farther and farther into PG-13 land. Can't help but think that some horror movies from thr late 1950s were more graphic that this movie. If it weren't for the flashbacks which had women popping up dressed up oh so scantily or cutting to gentlemen's clubs, a large amount of this movie would have been taken out of this movie. Most B-movies have the typical 90 minute or 85 minute range. This movie is close to 120 minutes long. It just keeps on dragging on and on for all the flashbacks and hints of women our hero dated over the years. So many of the scenes could have been cut down which would have made this movie a lot less dragging.

Spirit Hunter is trying to do quite a bit. However, they don't realize they're doing too much with too little. If it had the decency not to have every scene too long , it wouldn't have been so dulling. Thankfully, this isn't a movie that is full of "TOO DARK TO SEE" scenes. Seen better and seen worse, this is just one of the extremely middling movies that is too good to be know for being horrendous like Massacre.

Quotable Dialogue
"Is a Yankee too good to talk with me?"
"It's been one strnage night, brother..."
"Ain't got nobody..."
"Lift our spirits so to speak..."
"The spirit is willing but the flesh is missing..."
Morals of the Story
Grim Reaper enjoys breaking hallway lights.
Spirits can take the subway.
Ghosts use the internet.
People regularly try to set ghosts up for dates.