Andrei
Chikatilo was an ardent Communist and a serial killer with over fifty confirmed
victims. As a small child, he lived through the famine years of Stalin’s punitive
collectivization of Ukrainian agriculture, so many have speculated the
widespread suffering and rumors of cannibalism profoundly twisted his psyche
over time. Ominously, just like the Soviet Russian Army, it seems the
malevolent spirit of Chikatilo has returned to torment the Ukrainian people
again in Petr Jákl’s Ghoul (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New Jersey.
Three
Americans have come to Ukraine to finish their spec documentary on Twentieth
Century cannibalism. Initially, it is not exactly Chikatilo’s story they have
come to tell, but that of Boris Glaskov, a local man who was convicted but
leniently sentenced for committing an act of cannibalism, while supposedly
possessed by Chikatilo’s spirit. Through their dodgy fixer Valeriy and Katerina,
a more trustworthy interpreter, they arrange to interview Glaskov in the spooky
old farmhouse where it all went down. Naturally, he never shows, but for some
reason Ina, the village “witch,” tagged along, thinking she might be needed.
By
the time the crew realize Glaskov stood them up, it is quite late and everyone
is rather drunk. Resigned to the situation, they resolve to spend the night
there, so they can chase him down in the morning. Needless to say, a lot of
weirdness happens that night. They do not necessarily remember most of it, but
the cameras recorded it all. While they try to dismiss the psychic’s spooky
talk, they will eventually accept her diagnosis of the situation—they will have
to placate the vengeful spirit haunting the house if they ever hope to leave.
Reportedly,
Ghoul had the highest opening gross
for a horror film in Czech history. It is definitely informed by the tragic
weight of Soviet history but some might find its use of archival images from
the Great Ukrainian Famine to be problematically exploitative. One simply
cannot picture an American horror film using photos of the Holocaust in a
similar manner. Still, the Chikatilo and Ukrainian angles are what really
distinguish Ghoul from the crowded
field of found footage horror films. Jákl also skillfully utilizes some creepy
sets and props, but that and the intriguing backstory are about all it has to
offer.