Pay the Ghost

Mike Lawford is an English professor whose work has kept him at a distance from his family. To make good on a promise to his young son Charlie, he takes the boy to a Halloween parade in New York, where Charlie vanishes without a trace. A year later, with the police search having led nowhere, Mike is tormented by disturbing visions and messages he cannot explain. Believing his son is trying to reach him, he seeks out his estranged wife Kristen, and together they follow a trail of clues through the city. What they uncover points to an ancient and vengeful force that claims children on Halloween night, and Mike and Kristen have limited time if they are to bring their son home.

Pay the Ghost was directed by Uli Edel, whose filmography stretches back to Christiane F. in 1981 and includes Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Little Vampire and The Baader Meinhof Complex. Daniel Kay wrote the screenplay, and the film was produced by Ian Levy, Nicolas Chartier and Craig J. Flores. Nicolas Cage plays Mike, with Sarah Wayne Callies as Kristen, Veronica Ferres as Hannah, Lyriq Bent as Jordan, Lauren Beatty as Annie and Kalie Hunter as the ghost Annie. Its 37 credited cast and 111 credited crew are typical of a modestly scaled American horror production.

Released in September 2015, the film took in about 2 million dollars worldwide. Ratings place it on the low side: 5.2 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 20,000 votes and 5.4 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller pool of voters. A critics' score of 3.7 out of 10 from 31 reviews is below even those audience figures.