Three college students — meth-addicted Kyle (Aaron Dean Eisenberg), paraplegic Sutton (J. Walter Holland), and occultist Platt (Jared Grey) — come in possession of a 15th century casket that also has a built-in music box.  Kyle discovers that, when you lie down in the casket and play the music at the same time, you briefly become a ghost and you can go anywhere without being seen.  However, a piece of your soul dies every time that use the music box and Death itself soon starts to follow you around.  Platt thinks the box is dangerous but Kyle sees it as a way to pay off his debts and Sutton sees it as a way to both walk and stalk Kyle’s girlfriend, Julie (Liz Fenning).

To give credit where credit is due, the concept behind The Ghostmaker is interesting.  Even if the film’s plot is just a retread of Flatliners, I liked the idea of the casket killing Kyle and Sutton’s soul a piece at a time.  Just as Kyle has become addicted to crystal meth, Sutton soon becomes addicted to using the casket and the end results aren’t good for anyone.  The first half of the movie is genuinely good, with some quality jump scares and plenty of creepy scenes of Kyle and Sutton walking around as ghosts.  The second half of the movie is where things fall apart as the story becomes less about the consequences of using the casket and more about Kyle and Sutton’s personal problems.  The endless victimization of Julie becomes exploitive and the film’s final scenes really reveal the limitations of the mostly unknown cast.  What started out as a thought-provoking look at what it means to have a soul becomes a standard thriller.

The movie opens by saying that it’s based on a true story.  If you believe that, I have a ghost-making casket to sell you.