A beautifully crafted ghost story

Rating: Null/10 (19 February 2003)

This movie was never scary to me. It was always just sad. Don't get me wrong, I really loved this movie. I was just able to allow myself to see deeper than a few scares. Like all good ghost stories, once you peel away the fear of the unknown, there is a story of sadness. Of life cut short. In most good ghost stories, the ghost's need our help and reach out to us. The fear comes from our reaction to them. They are the dead who have no voice and are trapped. This movie is a beautiful portrait of sadness. It also had a wonderful relationship between a mother and her son. She cannot reach him, she is the only person that thinks he's normal, he will never let her know how different he is. They, just like the ghosts, have no way to communicate with one another. There is love and small moments of joy that they share but always under a blanket of sadness. I love this movie because it tells us a story. A good story about a scary subject but puts a new twist on it. It reminds us how sad and lonely ghosts can be, and how much they need us, and how we need them. It shows us that sadness does not end with death, we can carry with us always. Sometimes we just need someone to set us free.