By David Dent
Writer/director Jim Makichuk’s debut – and only -theatrical feature was the second time a Canadian movie had utilised the ‘wendigo’, the first being an obscure 1978 flick by Rodger Darbonne called, appropriately, The Wendigo. In legend the creature is depicted as a malevolent, cannibalistic spirit; Ghostkeeper introduces the beast as “a ghost who lives on human flesh”.
It’s New Year’s eve in the Canadian Rockies (Makichuk’s movie is impressively filmed in and around Lake Louise); the snow is abundant and three partygoers equip themselves with a couple of snowmobiles and head out from their friends at the lodge for a bit of sightseeing.
Geological engineer Marty (Murray Ord), his girlfriend Jenny (Riva Spier) and their friend Chrissy (Sherri McFadden) are the partygoers in question; Jenny and Marty’s relationship appears to be in trouble, possibly because Jenny harbours fears that she may have inherited her mother’s insanity, while Marty seems unusually attentive to the flirtatious Chrissy, who will later regale her friends with a prostitution fantasy. The trio predictably end up lost in a blizzard after ignoring a ‘Private Property – Keep Out’ sign and, due to an accident, find themselves down a snowmobile, when they happen across a possibly abandoned facility, the Deer Lodge motel (which still exists, now much expanded) in which they seek shelter.
Inside they find an older woman, referred to in the credits as ‘Ghostkeeper’ (Georgie Collins) who agrees to put them up for the night; the hotel is largely closed because of a lack of business and they are the only guests. Later, while taking a bath, Chrissy is abducted and murdered by the Ghostkeeper’s son (Billy Grove) and fed to a misshapen beast, the aforementioned wendigo (John MacMillan). Jenny and Marty work out that their lives are in danger, a position not helped by Jenny’s fears about mental health becoming true.
Not a lot happens in Ghostkeeper. Made in a golden period of independent horror filmmaking where, because of low budgets, movies were usually about atmosphere and mild grotesquerie rather than thrills and fast pacing, the authentically intense winter weather does a lot of the heavy lifting here, coupled with the creepy confines of the motel. A decidedly odd conclusion, creepy old Georgie Collins running around (and the aforementioned white stuff) have drawn comparisons between this and the previous year’s The Shining, although Ghostkeeper at least authentically locates its action in the Rockies rather than Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.
Bloody Flicks 