Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Ghost Team One

December 15, 2013

Ghost Team One - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray

Ghost Team One is one of four or five comedies released this year set in a haunted house. I don't think a single one of them earned positive reviews. This film didn't earn the worst reviews, so I'm hoping it is at least entertaining, if not truly good. Can it live up to lowered expectations?

The Movie

We first meet Sergio and Brad, who are roommates. (There is a third roommate, Chuck, whom we don't meet till later.) They are excited, Brad is a little too excited, because they think they have evidence their house is haunted.

This started two days ago when they were throwing a massive party. Sergio decided to document the party with a camera strapped to a helmet. He tries hitting on one of the partygoers, but needless to say, he fails. Later, he's about to crash when he hears two people having sex in the closet. He opens the door to tell them to stop, but there's no one there. Confused, he leaves his room only to hear the moaning again. Still unable to find where the noises are coming from, he leaves again only to see a spectral woman. He tells Brad, but Brad only mocks him, so Sergio decides to go to sleep. (Or passes out.) Brad runs into the partygoer Sergio hit on, Fernanda, and decides to embarrass Sergio by getting him to tell her the story of the ghost he saw. However, it backfires, as Fernanda is really into ghosts, so instead embarrassing Sergio, Brad helps him. Instantly Brad claims they are working on a documentary and ask Fernanda to help them out.

This brings us right back to the beginning and the rest of the movie is basically Paranormal Activity, but with two guys trying to get laid. Except while Sergio and Brad want to have sex with Fernanda, whatever is haunting their house wants to have sex with them.

This is a terrible movie with very few redeeming qualities. The two lead characters are certainly not likable, but they are also not interesting, as they lack any real depth as people. Fernanda is slightly better, because while she's crazy, at least that gives her some personality. Like Paranormal Activity is often watching nothing happen through cameras with the occasional jump scare. I'll admit the first one got me, because I wasn't expecting the movie to even attempt to be scary. The humor is mostly bland, but in the end turns really, really racist. It turns out, the house used to the a brothel and the ghost is an Asian lady, Lady Azalea. So when Chuck becomes possessed and begins to act strange, it's one extended horrible racist stereotype. It's cringe-worthy. There's a fine, and sometimes blurry, line between pokes fun at racism and humor that is simply racist. This is the latter. There's no doubt about that. If it were one or two racist jokes and the rest of the movie was really funny, I might give this small lapse of judgment a pass, but that's not the case. The entire last act focuses on this and almost none of the rest of the humor is funny.

The Extras

Extras on the DVD and Blu-ray include 14 minutes of deleted / extended scenes. There are 7 minutes of extended video diaries by Chuck. Up next are three minutes of outtakes. And finally, there is a six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, as shot by Chanel, the Dog.

The film is supposed to be shot on a consumer / prosumer level camera, so you can't expect great video or audio. The Blu-ray does a good job of capturing the quality limitations of the cameras without adding any additional flaws. Likewise, the audio is good, but very rarely is it active in the surround sound speakers.

The Blu-ray costs 59 cents less than the DVD, so it has that going for it.

The Verdict

Ghost Team One starts out with two unfunny irritating characters lusting after a woman and ends with some horribly racist humor. In the middle it is mostly dull. There are not a lot of extras on the DVD or the Blu-ray, but at least the Blu-ray isn't overpriced.


- Submitted by:

Filed under: Video Review, Ghost Team One, Fernanda Romero, Carlos Santos, Jr., J.R. Villareal, Tony Cavalero, Felicia Hom