The Ghosts Of Monday

Sofia (Marianna Rosset) is going home. She was born on Cyprus and spent the early part of her life there, but she’s uncomfortable about returning, especially to the Grand Hotel Gula. The trip is necessary because Eric (Mark Huberman) has work to do there, making yet another semi-promotional travel documentary – or at least that’s the plan to begin with. Producer Bruce (Julian Sands) has other ideas, and Sofia, knowing Eric’s volatility, tries to repress her own disquiet in order to smooth things over between the two of them, avoiding destructive conflict and making sure that Eric will get paid.

She’s the only person who has a persuasive influence over both of them. She’s known Bruce for a long time and is, notably, the only young woman he doesn’t hit on. She and Eric have had a romantic relationship which is now on the rocks and Bruce wants to see them get back together. This personal drama plays out within the glamorous confines of a hotel which is empty apart from the crew and its elderly owners, whilst other, much stranger things are afoot.

It all goes back to 1990, when the hotel was the scene of a mass poisoning which claimed 100 lives. It happened on the 53rd Monday of the year (a rare thing in itself, we are told, though if you think about it, there have been five since), hence the title, and since then local people have considered the place to be cursed, which makes it difficult to attract guests. The owners at that time are said to have killed themselves. The new owners have persuaded Bruce that a film which hypes up the idea that the place is haunted could give it a future.

Given that the film screened at Frightfest 2020, viewers will be expecting a proper ghost story, and there’s certainly something of that here, but there’s also a lot more. That isn’t a good thing. It’s likely a consequence of the film having five writers, with no-one apparently being willing to put their foot down and make it clear that some plotlines had to go. Any one of the storylines could have worked well, and it might have been possible to combine two or even three of them successfully, but as it is the film is pulled in multiple directions at once, and pulled apart.

With a capable cast, it is at its strongest when focused on character-driven drama. Cast against type, Sands has fun exploring his role, and Rosset is interesting throughout, though sadly her character gets little to do during the final act. Huberman makes a fair go of a role which has a lot of potential to begin with, even if it gives way to something more generic over time, and there’s a charismatic supporting turn from Kristina Godunova as his assistant. Their work will keep you thinking that the disparate pieces of plot are going to come together and develop into something interesting. They are not.

Director Francesco Cinquemani does his best, and makes effective use of the contrast between the vast, clean-lined spaces of the hotel and the scuzziness of a basement where sinister things are happening. There are some beautifully composed scenes which just don’t link together very well. The messiness of the whole will make viewers second guess little asides which he might have got away with otherwise. Does every hotel-set horror film need twin girls? Horror fans may perk up when the conversation turns to ancient deities and human sacrifice (historians familiar with the deity in question may cry), and there is some entertaining follow-up on that, but it’s schlocky stuff which feels out of place in a film working hard to be taken seriously.

In the end, the film feels like a wasted opportunity, hastily jumping from one idea to another and never taking the time to develop any of them properly. Even pre-release, it’s ripe for a remake.