A Ghost Story

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for A Ghost Story
• a review of A Ghost Story completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 3 August 2017.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

“C” (Casey Affleck) and “M” (Rooney Mara) live in a small house in Texas. C is a musician/song writer while M seems to spend her time writing secret messages on pieces of paper which she hides in cracks in the walls of their house so as to leave a small piece of herself behind as a reminder that she had lived there. Meanwhile there are strange lights that dance on the walls and piano sounds in the middle of the night. They make a decision to move, but the next day C is killed in a car crash in front of their house.

When we next see M she is standing in a hospital next to C’s dead body, which is covered with a sheet. When M leaves the hospital, C’s ghost, in the form of the sheet-covered body suddenly rises up and follows her home where he stands in silence watching M dealing with her grief and loss.

Finally M moves on and moves out, while C takes longer to find peace.

Ghosts and the supernatural; death and grief

There is some violence in the film, including

• The death of a main character in a car accident. The aftermath is shown with the two damaged cars and his dead body slumped and bleeding
• Scenes of a family attacked by Native Americans with war cries and shouts. Afterwards dead adults and children lie with arrows sticking out of bloody wounds, and there are brief images of their bodies decomposing.
• C’s ghost throws and smashes plates in anger

Material that may scare or disturb children

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• Supernatural occurrences include scratching sounds on walls inside a house, lights turning on and off, eerie patterns of light reflecting off walls with no obvious source, and a piano playing in the middle of the night.
• C’s ghost is scary – his body covered by a sheet with eye holes cut out. Children are likely to be particularly disturbed by the scene when the ghost sits up on the hospital bed and scenes where he walks through walls.
• Suffering from the grief after C’s death, M eats almost the whole of a large pie, then makes a dash for the toilet and vomits - we hear the sound of retching.
• C’s ghost stands on top of a tall building and then falls off and plummets towards the ground but do not see him hit the ground.
• In one scene depicting a haunting we see a young boy and older girl asleep in their beds. The young boy is woken by a noise and looks to see the wardrobe door opening and points his toy gun at C’s ghost.

Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes

Younger viewers in this group may also be disturbed by some of the scenes and themes in this movie.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• laptops, headphones and the Internet

Sexual references

• None noted.
  

Nudity and sexual activity

The film contains some sexual activity and partial nudity. Examples include:

• We see a man and woman lie on a couch the man cuddling and he caresses her bare abdomen.
• A man and woman are asleep in bed when they are woken by a noise. When they get up to investigate the man is naked from the waist up and she has a sheet wrapped around her body revealing bare shoulders and cleavage.
• We see a man and woman in bed touching and caressing each other’s face and hands kissing foreheads and the kissing each other passionately on the lips repeatedly along with back rubbing until the pair fall asleep.     
• During a party, men and women dance and kiss.

Use of substances

Social drinking by adults

Coarse language

The film contains minimal coarse language. Examples include:

• ‘fucking why?’; ‘ holy shit’

In a nutshell

A Ghost Story is targeted at adults and is not recommended for children or young teens. Although it is about death and a ghost, it is not a horror story but explores love, loss, grief, and mortality. The film’s disturbing scenes, its themes, and the level of concentration and alternate thinking required, make it unsuitable for under 13s and parental guidance is strongly recommended for the 13 to 15 age group.

Parents of older children may wish to discuss the perspective taken by the film and the way in which it leaves things unsaid, allowing viewers to find answers for themselves.