2 years after the ending of the show ghosts is back with a brand new addition to the series in the form of a movie. The film is set a few months after the ending of season five and we follow the ghosts as they try to get Alison to help them get rid of the protestors that are trying to stop the house being made into a hotel. Once they realize that they can possess a living person when a group of 3 teens break in and use an ouija board to communicate with them. It wouldn’t be a ghosts film if the group didn’t go through some shenanigans however what lies underneath all this is an incredibly touching story about moving on and acceptance.
One of main protagonists is a young boy called Jack, played by Scott Ellis Watson who had his big break last year playing a young John Davidson in I swear last year, who is in the foster care system and has been moved around from family to family and never quiet finding one to call his own. However once he is possessed by Julian he starts to learn how to trust people and let them in with the help of the ghosts that live there. This in turn allows the ghosts to start accepting things they didn’t want to accept but end up getting that closure with the help of Jack. We see that throughout the film both Julian and Jack slowly fading creating the feelings of desperation in the ghosts to help get Jack back into the body to allow him to keep living in a way they will never be able to.
The film is filled with the humor you would expect from the Them There group, the humor from the show is extremely present in this film and has jokes for the whole family no matter what age you are. Some jokes make a point around certain running themes from the show such as Thomas’s love for Alison or The Captains sexuality of being a closeted gay man. All of these jokes and the plot in general can be watched as a separate entity making no requirements to watch the show before this film, making it a perfect watch for this school half term.
Each of the cast gives an incredible performance but the stand out has to be Scott Ellis Watson who is already cementing himself as an incredible actor. With him being one of the younger cast members in this film and acting alongside these well known actors such as Mathew Baynton, Ben Will bound and so on, Scott manages to never be outshined by this star powered cast. He is also able to perfectly portray Simon Farnaby’s character Julianne Fawcett MP when he is possessed and is able to make it feel like is truly possessed by the character while also being able to portray Jack when we are back at the house.
One major issue I had with this film is that it is too similar to the show and offers nothing new when it comes to what we know about these characters. We do see little bits of the characters past again and do get to see them having some closure however it makes the closure we had when watching the show feel empty but that has nothing really to do with the film itself.
Ghosts: Possession of the Button House is available in UK and Ireland cinemas now.
