Thanksgiving, the lost week & Ghostkeeper

Well, forget any business this week, it's only one day till Thanksgiving and you can't get anyone even on a twitter as Americans race to the supermarkets and shopping malls for deals. The day after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday", in which the retail businesses throw out every discount and sale they can think of. It's known as the biggest shopping day of the year. And it's also the premonition of Christmas sales. Needless to say the last few years were dismal but it's expected this year will actually go up by 16%.

So nothing is really going to happen this week for Travel Day except that I contacted a few producers who might be able to bring some needed investors. The only bright spot was a British distributor who wants to re-issue my Ghostkeeper movie in Great Britain as well as a potential sale to Netflix, the rental-by-mail DVD giant. The movie is nearly 30 years old and somehow has gotten a cult following up to the extent that a British web reviewer called me on the phone to interview me about the 29-year old movie.

It just goes to show that it's really true that if you wait long enough, someone will say something nice about you.

But my head isn't spinning too much, frankly it's not that great of a movie, we had budget problems and couldn't shoot the second half as I had written and it barely got finished. I had a great DP, John Holbrook and a legendary editor Stan Cole, both of whom made magic with it somehow.  Here's the good reviews:

• Ghostkeeper is a pretty creepy and atmospheric horror film which will keep you guessing until the end. The acting is solid and the atmosphere of fear and total isolation is well-captured.
• Ghostkeeper is one of those unknown horror gems that are hard to come by, but rewarding when discovered.
• There's a very odd eeriness here that keeps it worthwhile and better production values than most other films of it's calibre makes it a film I recommend to true horror films.
• An underrated horror gem and one of the better early 80's horrors.
• A remarkably eerie and very atmospheric horror film... a pretty top notch 80's horror flick. 
  

Well, those reviews made me feel almost ready for a Manhattan on the rocks. But I'm not accepting the award yet... 

•  "The Shining" for dummies. 

• Ghostkeeper is not as good as others would have you believe. 

• I simply don't know what this movie is about because there is hardly any story in this film, even at the very end you don't have a single clue to what was going on. 
• Dull, derivative and unmemorable.
  

Well, you can't win everyone.

You can read these and more on www.imdb.com  and just enter Ghostkeeper in the Search box and scroll down.

Given that most of these people saw a badly aged video with poor color and, to my taste,  barely watchable. I figured the least I could do is give them a decent copy of the movie, even to the ones who steal it. More on this as it happens.

So to my American relative and friends, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, I plan to indulge in as much food as I possibly can with my friends with a promised warm 82F day.