image002.jpgPoltergay

Peccadillo Pictures

ALL REGION PAL

Web: http://www.peccadillopictures.com/

 

Marc and Emma move into their new house, it has cost them a twenty year mortgage and they have a lot of work to do to make it liveable. Marc is a bit of a hunk and the camera certainly enjoys his look. During the first section of the film the camera seems focused on Marc and you are not sure why, however, soon all is revealed. It seems that during the 1970’s the basement of this house was a Gay nightclub which was destroyed by fire when a foam machine self destructed electrocuting its clientele. The house is now haunted by the spirits of five gay clubbers who are doomed to dance to Boney M every night staying young for eternity !

 

It seems that while Marc can see them and is shocked by their outrageous antics, Emma cannot and as his life spirals out of control, he hits her father over the head with a shovel (mistaking him for a gay ghost), loses his job and Emma leaves him. He tries to come to terms with what is occurring, even questioning his own sanity and sexuality, but in the end he realizes that he must win back the love of his life and find a way to free the imprisoned gay spirits.

 

The various ghosts all have nice personality quirks, ranging from the obviously “gay in denial” to the left wing radical and the very effete possibly transgender who seems obsessed with woman. These all add a nice extra dimension to the film and some good character development.

 

Poltergay is a rather nice piece of light entertainment, a mixture of ghost story and comedy; it has a great sense of play and has lots of wit and humour. The story moves through various stages and even has some nice reminders about tolerance and diversity, but it is not meant to be serious entertainment. In the middle section you even wonder if it will be a “coming out” story but rather than follow what would have been a predictable path, the five gay ghosts actually help Marc win back his girl and in return the house is turned back into a dance club, this time called “Pompeii”.

 

There are some especially fun scenes, one that springs to mind is when Marc takes them on a trip into the heart of Paris and they see what gay life is now like compared to the underground culture of 1979. This celebration of the “Gay promised land” is fun and rather nice. There is also a rather touching moment when the key couple of the tale are re-united, ghost and human, many years later in “Pompeii”.

 

Poltergay is a rather silly and zany comedy with a great sense of camp and offers lots of great laughs along the way.