''Ghost Team'' is a 2016

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

comedy-thriller film directed by Oliver Irving from a screenplay by Peter Warren, based on a story by Irving and Warren. The film's cast includes

Jon Heder Jonathan Joseph Heder (; born October 26, 1977) is an American actor. He is best known for his breakout lead role as the title character of the comedy film ''Napoleon Dynamite'' (2004). He also voiced the character in the Fox animated serie ...

David Krumholtz David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978) is an American actor. Krumholtz is best known for portraying Bernard in ''The Santa Clause'' franchise (1994–present), Michael Eckman in '' 10 Things I Hate About You'' (1999), Goldstein in the '' Harold & K ...

Melonie Diaz Melonie Diaz (born April 25, 1984) is an American actress who has appeared in many independent films, including four shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. She received Independent Spirit Awards nominations for performances in films '' A Guid ...

, Paul W. Downs with

Justin Long Justin Jacob Long (born June 2, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his film roles, particularly in comedy and horror films, notably appearing in ''Galaxy Quest'' (1999), ''Jeepers Creepers (2001 film), Jeepers Creepers'' ( ...

and

Amy Sedaris Amy Louise Sedaris (; born March 29, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She played Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central comedy series '' Strangers with Candy'' (1999–2000) and the prequel film '' Strangers with Candy'' (2005), wh ...

. ''Ghost Team'' examines the things some people believe in to escape the monotony of everyday life and get through the day. The film was released on August 12, 2016, by The Orchard and

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...

Plot

Louis is a paranormal-obsessed copy shop owner looking to escape his monotonous life. When a customer having "No Trespassing" signs made mentions he owns a barn that might be haunted, Louis recruits a dysfunctional team – his depressed best friend Stan; misfit nephew Zak; a cable access "medium" calling herself Victoria; Ellie, a beautician who works in the same strip mall; and Ross, an overeager security guard – to investigate, partially as an application to join a TV show called ''Ghost Getters''. With equipment acquired by Zak, the group drives out to the barn on a Saturday afternoon. In tribute to the "Ghost Getters", Louis has made T-shirts for his group labelled "Ghost Team", which Zak refuses to wear. The Team set up an observation post, hold a seance, then split up to look around. After recording some things, they check some of their audio, and discover what they think is EVP. At this point, the Team realizes Victoria is missing. While searching for her, Zak, Stan and Ross also disappear, and then Louis and Ellie find the reason: the barn is the home of a meth lab, being run by the sign customer, Mitch, whose employees have been capturing them as trespassers. They set the lab on fire and leave the Team to die. The Team escape the burning lab and get away from Mitch and his goons, except for Victoria. Mitch uses her as a hostage to force the Team to let him leave on his boat, and to not report anything they saw. He changes his mind and decides to kill them instead. Victoria convinces Mitch that she is channeling his father, giving Louis the chance to shoot him with Ross' paintball gun, incapacitating him. The meth lab then explodes. The Team contact police, who take their statements and arrest Mitch. Having bonded, the group drives home, singing along to "

Dream Weaver "Dream Weaver" is a song by the American singer Gary Wright, released as the first single from his third studio album '' The Dream Weaver'' in December 1975. Origins and instrumentation The track features Wright on vocals and keyboards and Jim ...

Cast

as Louis *

as Stan *

as Ellie * Paul W. Downs as Zak *

as Ross *

as Victoria *

Tom Schiller Tom Schiller is an American writer, director, comedian and actor best known for his eleven-year stint writing and directing short films for ''Saturday Night Live'' (following the show's original short film makers Albert Brooks and Gary Weis). His ...

as Mitch *Joel Marsh Garland as Hammer *

Jason Hawes Jason Conrad Hawes (born December 27, 1971) is an American plumber and the co-founder of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), which is based in Warwick, Rhode Island. He is also one of the stars and co-producers of Syfy's '' Ghost Hunters'', w ...

as himself (Cameo) *Steve Gonsalves as himself (Cameo)

Production

Principal photography on ''Ghost Team'' took place during fall 2015 in New York, on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

and in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. Casting and production was first announced by ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...

''. ''Ghost Team'' is produced by Julie Christeas and Schuyler Weiss of Tandem Pictures, Alex Sagalchik of Mott Street Pictures, Clem McIntosh and director Oliver Irving, with Kevin Iwashina of Preferred Content serving as Executive Producer. Ghost Team is the first feature film to use the new Tango Steadicam, created by American cinematographer Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam. Under Irving’s direction the movie, which was filmed in New York, completed principal photography in 17 days. Driven to avoid the typical backlit night scenes often seen in horror films, the filmmakers only used practical sources such as flashlights, gas lanterns and glow sticks to light the nighttime scenes.

Distribution

It was announced on November 12, 2015, that The Orchard and

had acquired North American, U.K., Australian, and New Zealand distribution rights for ''Ghost Team''. The film is slated for general release 12 August 2016, and On Demand on 30 August. In July 2016 it was made available at no charge, exclusively and for a limited time, on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

. The film was released on Netflix on 30 November 2016.

Reception

It has a score of 22% on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. Initial critical response was largely negative.

References

External links

* * * *{{mojo title, ghostteam American comedy thriller films American independent films The Orchard (company) films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language comedy thriller films 2016 independent films 2016 films English-language independent films