LACE CRATER (USA 2015) **1/2
Directed by Harrison Atkins

Review by Gilbert Seah

LACE CRATER is a low budget indie romantic supernatural comedy/drama/horror about a young woman, Ruth (Lindsay Burdge) having sexual relations with a ghost.

It all begins when Ruth and her pals head out to the scenic Hamptons for a weekend of fun. The fun includes getting drunk, sitting in the hot tub and joking around. Ruth ends up sleeping in the guest house which Andre (the host) claims to be haunted. That night a drunk Ruth has a visitor. Yes, the ghost (Michael Vack) is not too bad looking. (The last time friends sat in a hot tub they went through time in the Hot Tub time machine.) To make matters worse, Ruth contacts STD from the ghost as well.

Atkin’s film plays weird funny. The best way to describe it is the scene where Ruth meets her doctor about to take her blood. “Hope you’ve enough to spare.” When Ruth gives the doctor an odd look, he confesses that it is a joke and that he has tried standup comedy. LACE CRATER plays its comedy whether the audience gets it or to, and mainly plays in the way the story unfolds.

It would help connect the audience to the film if director Atkins made Ruth a more sympathetic character. Ruth is just there, having the ‘roll in the hay’ with the ghost and that is it. Nothing much is also known about Ruth’s background.

Near the end, writer/director turns up the angst with Ruth’s behaviour. It is here that the film slides into creepy horror. Ruth barfs black stuff all over the floor at a party, freaks out and goes back to the guest house to meet the ghost. This is where the film falls apart. Atkins starts to take the film too seriously, complete with explanation what happened to the ghost before he died. The rules are dealt out, the ghost says and he has to take them without question. Really? Atkins implies the same for his film. The only difference is that the audience need not have to take them.

LACE CRATER played last year at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Vanguard section. The Vanguard section is the festival’s oddest section where the weirdest films often uncategorized fall into. LACE CRATER clearly falls in this section. Be prepared for LACE CRATER, whether you get it or not!

What happens when you have sex with a ghost? One can google the answer or watch this film. The former appears the better solution. Atkins also leaves LACE CRATER with a open ending with still questions unanswered.

The film opens this week in NYC and is available now on VOD.

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