[Editor’s Note: Above, you may have noticed that this “feature” lists “showrunners”, rather than a director. This is because Irving Renquist, Ghost Hunter was created as an online “TV” show, spanning three and a half hours. Despite its episodic nature, it has a single writer (David B. Grelck), a single main storyline, and the entire series was made on a VERY micro-budget. It made far more sense to review it as one large feature film, rather than nine short films. Since it was created in nine parts, we will refer to issues that arise in certain episodes, because they affect the overall storyline.
To give credit where credit is due, the directors (in order) are as follows: Nick Thompson, Patrick Pantelis, Tricia Noens, Michael P. Noens, Steve Coulter, & David B. Grelck.]
Irving Renquist, Ghost Hunter is the story of Irving Renquist (Brian Wohl), an investigator of the supernatural, who has never actually encountered a ghost. While his origins are strangely shrouded, he apparently dated a ghost hunter and when the relationship didn’t work out (through his own indiscretions); he decided to become a ghost hunter, too. He then connects with Julia Kelby (Erica Lynn Schmeck), a childhood friend who has become a journalist, and they hire their services to a supernatural-styled TV show, called “Chicago Haunts”. Unfortunately, his ex-girlfriend Saundra works for the show and seems bent on trying to hurt or frustrate Irving at every turn.
On a quickly approaching deadline, for a very impressive story, Irving scouts throughout old Chicagoland, looking for possible leads. Having found nothing in the likely places (or more correctly, the unlikely places), Irving decides to explore the cemetery on old Cuba Road, in the outlying Chicago township of Cuba, an area that is reported to be a hub of supernatural activity. Believing that this area may be a “stage door” (a supernatural portal between the “stage” of life and the “backstage” death), Irving decides to take his scientific equipment to the cemetery. However, Julia can’t make it, and their research assistant, Lonnie (Marc Muszynski), is extremely afraid of actual locations that might be haunted. (The character of Lonnie reminds one of a much more timid version of Ghostbusters’ Egon, combined with the quirky personalities of X-Files’ Lone Gunmen.)
Alone in the cemetery, Irving runs into Dotti (Angela Wascher), a 19-year old girl that he randomly encountered earlier that evening, at a restaurant where she worked. Dotti has some strange spirits surrounding her house, a fact that intrigues Irving enough to walk her home and agree to go out with her, if she will tell him more about her household spirit known as “Alex”.
From here, a tangled web of confusion, mystery, and lies begin to entrap Irving, Julia, and Lonnie as they try to uncover what really happened to Alex on Old Cuba Road and why Dotti’s house has become a hub for supernatural activity.
Irving Renquist is a
paranormal investigator...
...Whose ex-girlfriend seems
determined to block him.
Content
The writing and directing in this show is very stylized. Initially it walked more toward the campy quirkiness of “Army of Darkness” and “Ghostbusters”, than the serious suspense of “Supernatural” or the “X-Files”, the latter to which it clearly pays homage. This style of writing and directing is often difficult to perform credibly and caused some believability problems at times, which I will expand on later. However, as the writing and directing progressed, it got its bearings, left much of the “camp” behind, and headed into the realm of suspense drama. This was a welcome choice and helped finally pull me into the storyline, midway through Episode 3.
Because the acting struggled in the first half of Episode 1 ( due to the requirements of the characters being so stylized and campy and difficult to believe) it affected the performance of Brian Wohl in his role of Irving Renquist, the main character; which then gave his partner Julia difficulties in having a believable relationship with her ex-boyfriend. The supporting actors seemed to have difficulty relating to these characters in a believable way, with the sole exception being the rather endearing performance of Angela Wascher, as Dotti the haunted girl, and Irving’s love interest. By the end of the first episode, a greater balance had been achieved and the actors had a much better feel for their roles, so I began to buy into the show. This increased believability lasted for much of the rest of the show, except when it came to dealing with “angry characters.” The angry characters in question were Dotti’s father, who stays angry with Irving and almost everyone throughout the show, and Saundra, who stays angry with Irving and almost everyone for most of the show. If acting is seen as cooking, then anger is the habanera pepper—a little goes a long way. With inexperienced actors, like inexperienced cooks, they tend to throw in way too large a quantity of powerful ingredients. In the case of anger, this results in a “shouty” or “constantly angry” character that is unbelievable. (If you watch truly angry people, anger fluctuates greatly, bubbling beneath the surface at times and emitting in spurts and sparks at other times, much like a real-world volcano. It takes an experienced actor or a very observant one to show this well.) While Saundra’s constant anger is eventually allowed to dissipate in Episode 9, revealing an interesting and frank character that you can buy into, Dottie’s father never is permitted to do so, which is really too bad because his character has more constant visibility than Saundra’s.
[Editor’s Note: Above, you may have noticed that this “feature” lists “showrunners”, rather than a director. This is because Irving Renquist, Ghost Hunter was created as an online “TV” show, spanning three and a half hours. Despite its episodic nature, it has a single writer (David B. Grelck), a single main storyline, and the entire series was made on a VERY micro-budget. It made far more sense to review it as one large feature film, rather than nine short films. Since it was created in nine parts, we will refer to issues that arise in certain episodes, because they affect the overall storyline.
