They Wait
Occasionally a film slips under my nose and I don’t find out about it until later on; sometimes when it’s already near distribution. Then there are also times when I expect very little from a film and get much more out of it. They Wait is a perfect example of both. I had never heard of the flick until a week ago, and if you ignore the rip-off poster and cheesy title, the movie is actually pretty decent. It’s rare for a straight-to-DVD movie (especially one that isn’t foreign) to actually put forth that extra effort in delivering some decent tension and also attempt to give the viewer a couple worthy jolts.
Mixing an old Chinese legend with a modern day twist, the film follows Jaime King’s character as a mother, who along with her husband and young son, must travel back North America after news of a member of the husband’s family has passed away. Coincidentally, it just so happens to be “Hungry Ghost Month” where the living pay respect the the dead by leaving food out and burning money and other items that they want to be passed over to the ghost realm. This is supposedly the time of the year when there are more restless spirits roaming out.
Unfortunately for the mother and son, they ghosts aren’t too happy with the fact that they can be seen. To make matters worse, one particular spirit seems to have taken a shine to the mother, causing a lot of sleepless nights. In hopes of putting an end to the haunting, the mother seeks the aid of an old herbalist, who gives her the items and know-how on how to determine the origins of the ghost and what it may be trying to communicate with her all this time.
Michael Biehn has a pretty small cameo appearance in the film, as Jaime King’s old journalist friend, who pops up a couple more times later on to offer some extra assistance. Other than that, most of the spotlight was on Jaime’s character and her son. The movie is a decent ghost tale that delivers some effective tension in certain scenes, which is something a lot of straight-to-DVD efforts usually don’t bother trying to accomplish. The scares were also somewhat creative, not relying to much on the stereotypical boo-scares.
There’s a decent amount of blood, but otherwise not a whole in terms of gore. Normally ghost tales don’t require much gore anyway. Although not the most original of premises, the story manages to keep the viewer entertained by its use of an uncommon setting and an old ghost legend. Added with some decent effects, and above-average acting, the film ended up a decent way to spend 80-minutes.
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