"All My Friends Are Funeral Singers" Topic

I saw a trailer for this delightful little indie film, was dismayed when my local library system didn't have a copy, then was thrilled to find the DVD for $1 USD at the library clearance sale!

The central character of the story is Zel (Angie Bettis), who is one of those fortune tellers living in a house off the main road with a "Psychic – Tarot Readings" sign out front.

She lives alone… but her house is packed full of ghosts! (The ghosts dress in white.) The ghosts play all day long, but they also help Zel out with her spiritualism. As the movie progresses, the ghosts' stories are teased out – sometimes in documentary-style interviews snippets. I won't ruin the movie by telling you why the ghosts are there, but it has a lot to do with folk magic and superstition and family…

One unusual twist to the movie is that the soundtrack is actually performed by ghost musicians (in reality, the Chicago band Califone). In fact, a member of the band is also the producer of the film. Their music is folk-rock-experimental – how much you like the music will influence how much you like the movie.

As the story unfolds, and you begin to realize what Zel's situation is, you begin to sense that things can't go on the way they are going… and about that time, a mysterious light in the woods appears!

This is not a slash-and-gore horror pick. This is the story of one woman and her ghost friends. I liked it.

The ending leaves you wondering… which is not a bad thing.

I rate it 7 out of 10.

Fascinating performance by Angie Bettis. The supporting cast is solid as well.

The movie is not rated. There's no nudity, and no profanity that I recall. One of the ghosts – a former priest – has some kind of sex obsession, nothing too graphic but probably not for children to hear. Some of the ghosts describe how they die, which also might be too much for kids.

There are some concepts here which could be incorporated into a horror campaign or RPG.

And "funeral singer" is apparently used by one of the characters as a euphemism for "ghost."

So… the initial setup seems inspired by "The Frighteners"

Spiritualist – check.
Aided by ghosts that only the Spiritualist can see – check.
Ghosts entertain themselves with hijinx – check.
Uncertain future that cannot keep going – check.

Even as you describe it, it does not really interest me, but thank you for the review and keep them up – I check out all your reviews.

Interesting. I will keep a look out for it.