Little Ghost Reviews

"Haunting" is the last adjective one would use to describe LITTLE GHOST, a low-budget family flick shot in Romania for the straight-to-video market. Glamorous former TV actress Christine (Kristina Wayborn) arrives in the country of Solvania to open a lavish health resort inside the historic Castle Klemenko, which has been acquired by her boyfriend/business manager Tony (James Fitzpatrick). Christine is accompanied by her neglected, fatherless son Kevin (Jameson Baltes). Kevin doesn't like Tony, and with good reason; the boyfriend is carrying on an affair with Christine's greedy personal secretary and "spiritual advisor" Joanna (Laura Bruneau). When Tony's decorating schemes start ruining the look of the castle, the guardian ghost of the house, the three-centuries-dead Sofia Klemenko (Trishalee Hardy), appears. Sofia is just an 11-year-old, and so her doll-like appearance doesn't scare Kevin when she materializes in his room. Recognizing that they have a common goal, Kevin and Sofia cooperate to harass Tony and steer Christine instead toward the castle's caretaker Pavel (Luc Leestemaker). On the day of the spa's grand opening, Kevin manages to raise the formidable ghost of Sofia's mother (Sally Kirkland) who wrecks the party; she then turns on poor Sofie, accusing her failing to guard the estate. Kevin saves his little ghost friend from oblivion by upbraiding Mother Klemenko for her centuries of absence. Christine, meanwhile, sees the light about Tony and Joanna; she takes Kevin's scolding to heart, and becomes a better mother to her son as they continue to live in the castle. Drawing inspiration from sources like the cartoon series Casper, the Friendly Ghost and the The Canterville Ghost, LITTLE GHOST actually has very little going for it, except the picturesque Old World setting and the blonde beauty of onetime Bond girl (OCTOPUSSY) Wayborn. Her character, however, is only one of a cast of vapid characters, acting out for the umpteenth time the modern morality play about career-crazed parents who neglect their children. Watching the sneaky Tony get hit with flying objects is no funnier or more wonderous the fifth time around than it is the first, and director (and former actress) Linda Shayne belabors things by having the whole tale narrated in childlike tones by a grown-up Kevin, in an adult voiceover (uncredited) that keeps reiterating the obvious. The child performers call to mind participants in a school pageant. Most of the ghostly special effects are saved for the finale, and they're way too brief for a supernaturally themed movie. The film's first sequence does include some interesting computer-generated specters, an attention-getting device obviously intended to keep viewers hooked. What follows quickly puts a stop to that.