Ghost Team

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".

Cast

Production

Principal photography on Ghost Team took place during fall 2015 in New York, on Long Island and in Brooklyn. Casting and production was first announced by Deadline.com. 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 holds the distinction of being the first feature film to use the new Tango Steadicam, created by legendary American cinematographer Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam.

Thanks to Irving’s innovation and determination, the movie—which filmed in New York and completed principal photography in 17 days last fall—has a very unique look. Driven to avoid the typical backlit night scenes often seen in horror films, the filmmakers used only 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 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. The film was released on Netflix on 30 November 2016.

Reception

It has a score of 22% on Metacritic.

Initial critical response was largely negative, however upon wider release On Demand and on Netflix, viewer reviews have been positive , citing ensemble performances, the heartfelt and nostalgic tone, and cameo appearances by Ghost Hunters stars Jason Hawes and Steve Gonsalves.