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Review Podcast Rating Legacy Revision Candidate

Amazing World of Ghosts (1978)

As someone who recently fell in love with a semi-coherent documentary of old film footage soundtracked to voiceover ramblings, you’d think this one in the same genre might also do it for me. Alas, this was basically unwatchable, and I don’t think I would have finished it if I wasn’t watching with a buddy and beers.

This “film” takes 90 minutes worth of photos and newsreel/documentary clips, and has a narrator ponder in a nonstop monologue repeated variations of “Could this be evidence of ghosts? Many people think so!”

The quality and supernatural relevance of the photos and clips is all over the map: We see the famous Big Foot picture and some other vaguely creepy stuff; but we also see what appears to be handheld footage of a New Orleans streets with people walking and performing music, or people helping recovery effort of a Haitian earthquake, that has nothing to do with ghosts; lastly we get plenty of blurry nonsense that has nothing to do with anything. Like they just grabbed whatever film reels were lying around.

There are moments where it really feels like this is taking the piss, but it almost never crosses quite over into parody or irreverence. (Okay, there is one hysterical, dramatic zoom in on a goose, and a game of bocce ball where the narrator ponders the power of magic orbs. Both do seem to cross the veil.) I did laugh out loud like 10 times, yet it didn’t scratch my ironic appreciation itches for whatever reason. And 95 consecutive minutes of “very bad, but not quite bad enough circle back to entertaining” is a damn slog.

Is It Good?

Very Not Good (1/8)

Note: This review was originally published elsewhere. Please excuse brevity or inconsistencies in style. If you have questions or feedback, please leave a comment or contact me.


Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.

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