Spirits in the Dark-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: Gil is sent a mysterious video that shows a necklace his wife used to wear. Believing that his deceased wife is trying to contact him, he sets about to investigate the location. 

Here’s a handy cam. Go make a movie.

I don’t know who first gave this advice but it was probably a not very sound one.

There have been a couple of decent “found-footage” movies in the past, sadly Spirits in the Dark misses the mark.

The only interesting part is that the actor isn’t your usual heavily-makeup-ed one and someone who is always at the gym.

It’s someone who can be anyone.

It’s not only the model types who grieve and experience terrifying incidents in their lives, you know.

Normal people too are allowed to experience emotions.

SPIRITS IN THE DARK Movie Plot 

The first scene shows a woman stopping a car in the middle of nowhere to inspect something at night. A hooded man grabs her from behind.

We then meet Gil who is a grieving widower. He’s just lost his wife and baby. He’s into paranormal investigation and has been sent a video of a dilapidated house where there’s a vision of a ghostly woman. But what interests him is the necklace on a table nearby. It’s the same as the one his wife used to wear.

He has a video chat with a friend who has found out the location of the place. But just as he’s about to deliver a warning, the video gets cut.

It doesn’t disconnect when Gil having long conversations about anything else. He could talk about the weather and politics and nothing happens on the internet. The minute the other character states, “I should warn you though, that place....”

Boop. Blank screen.

Gil doesn’t bother making a phone call the rest of the warning. He sets about to the abandoned house. We don’t see him as he goes around the house touching things. All we hear is him talking on and on.

Just to hold on to some attention, Gil picks up random objects around the house. He finds dismembered body parts, blood splatters on the wall and a mask hanging on a hook.

Gil doesn’t think someone might still be living around here. His car alarm goes off and he goes down to check it. Nope. Nothing. He goes up again, gives another boring narration and the car alarm goes off again.

Gil goes back and forth several times and it is night by now. Gil roams around and finds the mask gone.

He sees a woman standing in the doorway and runs. He gets into his car but the woman is in the backseat, giving him a look that seems to ask if anyone farted.

SPIRITS IN THE DARK Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

Gil screams and runs into the woods.

He finds fliers of women missing, but also random alphabets stuck on trees. He grabs them all and realizes it is an anagram: Save Her.

The ghost? The wife? Who could the tree be talking about?

When later, he heads back to the house he hears the cries of a baby and finds it in a car seat and surrounded by rubble.

But wait, there’s the masked, hooded man. We don’t see much of what is happening but apparently, Gil had a gun and he shoots the guy and runs away with the baby.

He puts the baby in his car and drives for quite a bit before stopping and calling the police. Since he can’t get good reception in his car, he gets out and makes the call.

There’s a scene of the ghost woman who was a nurse or something at the hospital where Gil’s wife delivered the baby and died. She is setting up the nursery and looking at the file that actually belongs to Gil’s wife.

Did the nurse steal the baby and tell Gil his daughter was dead? Did the hooded man intercept her and keep the baby? Did the nurse die because she needed daily medication according to the flier, and so died when she didn’t get any?

Probably.

We are then taken back to see that Gil isn’t as adept at taking down serial abductors. He was attacked and on the verge of dying it still managed to take the baby and call the police. We now understand why he steps out of the car. It is so that his death looks more dramatic as he sees his wife’s necklace and then collapses sideways into dried leaves.

He is joined by his wife who holds his hand and the necklace. Gil is holding his necklace as well. Black and white. In harmony.

Then there’s a ten minute shot of fog over the city. It goes on and on and on before the shot of the house is shown, and the hooded man still standing and...watching the fog?

The movie is dull in every way but fortunately, it is short, and you can easily skip the long shots of fog, in the end, to see the glimpse of the killer if at all you found him interesting. Or just turn off when Gil and his wife unite.

Scare scale: 1.5/5