The Reel Review
Five lifelong friends riddled with guilt over their own personal roles in World War II gather at a Brooklyn apartment for a séance. Their goal? To summon the ghost of a friend’s wife who had killed herself months before, in this period horror/drama.
Working from an intriguing premise about the literal and figurative ghosts of war, this film from writer/director Ted Geoghegan (We Are Still Here) has the feel of a stage play, taking place primarily in the apartment’s parlor. In addition to the supernatural, there also is a psychological element. Brooklyn 45 is as much a story about unprocessed grief, lingering guilt and prejudice as it is an actual ghost story.
The problem with this unconventional horror is that it doesn’t seem to know what type of movie it wants to be. It is really more of an overwrought drama, with some slipshod pacing. There are some tense moments and compelling performances – namely, Anne Ramsey (Mad About You, A League of Their Own), Larry Fessenden (Jakob’s Wife) and Kristina Klebe (2007’s Halloween) – but Brooklyn 45 ultimately sputters to a lackluster, senseless finale.
REEL FACTS
• Montana-raised writer/director Ted Geoghegan conceived the screenplay with his late father, Michael, a quadriplegic Air Force veteran and U.S. history teacher. Ted says his father’s last words to him before he died in 2019 were “I cannot wait to watch this movie.”
• Ted Geoghegan and lifelong friend Larry Fessenden also worked together on We Are Still Here, which also featured a séance scene.
• Brooklyn 45 was filmed in chronological order on a soundstage near Chicago.
Video & Photo
