Ghost and the Darkness

Director: Stephen Hopkins
Screenplay: John Herzfeld
Starring: Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer, Brian McCardie and John Kani
John's Review

Ghost and the Darkness is mysterious and suggestive of monstrous aberrations and semi-supernatural boogey men. All the more dissapointing, then, to realize an hour into this film, that the cause of all the noise is merely a pair of bloodthirsty lions. Borrowing most of his technique and vision straight from Jaws, Hopkins' movie is blind to many things besides our National Geographic idea of the great cats. Of course considering his previous credits this comes as no surprise. Hopkins other films to date: Predator 2, Judgement Night, Blown Away and let's not forget Nightmare on Elm Street 5, quite the resume.

Set in 1898, the movie doesn't try to evoke the danger of the colonial frontier, it just assumes it, so you're never frightened for any of the characters. The story is a simple one in its design, basically Lt. Col. John Patterson (Kilmer) is sent to Africa to build a bridge. It is very soon after that, that the local workers start disappearing at night and soon in broad daylight. The culprits? Well, you guessed it two very large and very hungry Lions. Enter Remington (Douglas) who helps Patterson hunt down and kill the lions before all the workers on the railroad are driven away out of sheer terror.

Despite the unnoticeable combination of both live action and Stan Winston creature effects, the lion fights are shot close, edited too quickly, and remain thoroughly unconvincing--you never get a chance to focus on the thrashing. There are also plot holes you could drive a truck through, most of which involve the lions levelling tent-buildings, and stuff like that. For example: at the end of the film, Lt. Col. John Patterson sets fire to the brush to drive the remaining lion out, why was he just thinking of this now?

Based on a true story, The Ghost and the Darkness is, strangely, never quite boring. But, whereas a tale of two rogue lions killing a hundred men in colonial Africa might sound like an interesting story, this film manages to make it seem pretty insignificant. Kilmer is dull and barely adequate, his Irish accent fades in and out during the film, I do give him marks for trying. Douglas is far less than adequate, he is basically miscast. (His southern accent also fades in and out through the film)Although the movie was poorly directed and adequately acted, I do have to give some credit where credit is due. The writing was pretty well done. William Goldman's (The Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) writing was the best part of the film.

Grade: C+
 
 

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