Ghostkeeper
According to director Jim Makichuk the film's money started to run out when the movie was only half shot, so rather than cancel the production altogether he decided to abandon the remaining script and make things up as he went along, hoping to at least retain the film's creepy atmosphere. He said this explains the released film's rather uneven, incoherent second half and sparse use of the plot's monster.,The trio of hikers wonders why it's so warm inside the hotel, yet you can clearly see their breath in every shot.,Marty: Some authentic country rustic. When's the whittlin' start?,An alternate introduction was filmed two years after the movie's completion by its distributors. The scene shows a young man running through the woods away from the hotel, who is then stabbed with a wooden stake against a tree. This alternate introduction appeared on some home video releases in Europe and Canada. The alternate introduction is not featured on the 1986 U.S. VHS release of "GHOSTKEEPER" from 'New World Video'.,Featured in 31 Days of Horror: Wes Craven Presents The Hills Have Ice (2019),Poorly distributed during a period when the horror-film market was predominantly angled toward the slasher element, this low-key B effort is actually not bad at all, and should probably be reevaluated by genre fans.

A trio of young snowmobilers face mechanical problems deep in the forest, and chance upon upon a neglected and very isolated hunting lodge. Initially they believe the place to be abandoned, but latterly find it inhabited by a strange old lady and her son...as well as their "pet" Wendigo(a spirit of Native American lore, ever hungry for human flesh).

While there's not a lot of meat on the bones of this story, the subtle atmosphere of eerie desolation makes up heartily for that fact. And while the production values might be a peck below the par, GHOSTKEEPER maintains the methodical, slow and steady momentum of a dying heartbeat, a quality further punctuated by its lonely and foreboding deep-forest setting, wraithlike in its icy-white veil of winter snow. All in all, a forgivably flawed slow-burner which probably won't appeal to gorehounds or fast-action thrill seekers, but it should satisfy a low-pressure, caffeine-free type of viewership.

5.5/10,