Jacob likes to take photographs and he is very good at it. While the art is very therapeutic for him, it’s killing his models.

“Ghost of the Needle” takes an unconventional approach to the horror serial killer sub-genre. The film’s central protagonist IS the serial killer and except for a few interruptions, there isn’t a sexy super cop hot on his trail prepping for the ultimate showdown between good and evil. And, you know, it’s really pretty refreshing. Of course, it helps that the film is expertly crafted and well acted.

I’m not into horror films. I guess I’m a bit squeamish. Often, the entire genre seems to be one dimensional—gore, a little sex, and maybe a quick hit of adrenaline, BOO! But sometimes there is more to it. Our fascination with the supernatural cannot be denied, we’re fascinated by it. And I guess so am I.

Jacob (Brian Bradley) is a photographer although no one sees his work. It’s private, and he has a private collection that includes photographs of models and the models themselves, well, their bodies anyway. You see Jacob lures women to his basement studio where he poisons them and after they die, he takes pictures of them, not lurid sexual ones but arty ones. Jacob develops the photos in his darkroom and hides them behind a shot of the location where he met them for the first time. The whole set up is clever and eerie.

Jacob’s basement studio is a scary and interesting place. There are columns covered in plastic and each column has a carefully framed photo attached to it. Each framed photo has two sides and the side that the world can easily see is the location shot. On the other side, if turned over, is the shot of the lifeless model.

Director Brian Avenet-Bradley has created a complicated character in Jacob and surrounded him with a unique and frankly scary set. Initially, I was put off by what I thought was a one note story, a mean-spirited tour of duty with a rather grim and purposely unlikable character. Instead, Avenet-Bradley makes it interesting by populating his story with sharply written characters that all have secrets.

For example, Avenet-Bradley gives Jacob an agent, Richard (Greg Thompson) who sounds and even looks a little like Jack Nicholson. And after a short introduction, we aren’t sure what is real and what might be occurring in Jacob’s head. Then there are scares—people who have been poisoned and vacuum-sealed in plastic and stored down below the basement studio. People who have been poisoned, sealed, and well maybe just aren’t really dead, or maybe they’ve come back to seek revenge.

One of the sub-plots involves a seemingly childless rich couple who are in the last leg of their unhappy marriage. Avenet-Bradley pairs the rich middle aged Steve (Jack Harkleroad) with a younger, yet, mature wife named Laura (Leigh Hill). Steve is a collector and Laura is his possession, but one that he is not willing to trade for another model. We learn of a sexy love triangle with the youthful sexy Aimee (Cheri Christian). Of course, Jacob puts the breaks on this unique relationship by taking a few photos of Aimee.

Harkleroad is very good as Steve but I fear that he is betrayed by his set which does not appear consistent with the personality he projects. I’m sure that the home used by the filmmakers was very nice and the props high-end stuff but it just looked a little too country traditional for his powerful rich character. I would expect either a modern black white and steel surrounding or something dark and ominous (think a wood paneled study or lower light). It may have been better to not have had any shots at the home at all and shoot the photograph show (a critical scene in the film changing the pace well) in a gallery of some sort. As it is the scenes involving Steve are somewhat hampered by this inconsistency making it more difficult for Steve to be intimidating.

Of course, Steve is not as important as Laura who is not what she seems. Hill plays Laura as deceptively tough which strikes the right tone. Her athletic frame and guilt ridden posture make her a good match for Jacob who is not the typical psychopathic serial murderer we are used to. Jacob is a misunderstood artist, right? Laura gets to know him and wants to understand him even if it means that she may end up sealed in plastic beside the sexy Aimee.

And what about the vacuum sealed bodies in the basement? Well, this is a cool way to store your kill--once sealed they can be stacked like cordwood. Jacob has a roll of black plastic in his studio which can be unrolled and wrapped tightly around his victims. He seals the plastic with glue and affixes a shop vac to the only remaining opening sucking all the air out of the bag even if the victim is still alive when the bag is being sealed. I have never seen this technique in a movie before (even though I remember those stupid funny scenes from that spoof “Student Bodies” years ago). One wonders where horror auteur Avenet-Bradley came up with it. Scary stuff guys!

One of the great things about “Ghost of the Needle” is that it never gets lost in the typical trappings of the horror serial killer sub-genre, rather, it wants to be about more. It wants to be about failed marriages, forbidden love, greedy agents, scummy private detectives, and murders via the serial killer method. And it works complete with the adrenaline rush.

For more information about "Ghost of the Needle" visit the film's website: http://www.ghostoftheneedle.com/

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003