welcome back to movie recaps today i
will show you a horror
thriller war film from 2020 titled
ghosts of war
spoilers ahead watch out and take care
in nazi occupied france at the end of
world war ii
an american squadron of soldiers is seen
sleeping in the woods
one of them chris has a nightmare and
when he wakes up he sees someone looking
over them from the adjacent tree
the apparition keeps looking at chris
who gets more unnerved and grabs at his
pistol
it [ __ ] its own pistol which prompts
chris to ask what it wants
expecting it to shoot him but when he
reopens his eyes the apparition has
vanished
the following morning chris and his
squad are preparing to leave for an
outpost where they are expected to
arrive
kirk is dealing with an insane rash from
his socks and asks butchie if he has a
spare pair
only to be met by ridicule from both him
and eugene the conversation ends with an
argument between kirk and eugene which
gets interrupted by chris ordering the
squad to move out
during their walk to the outpost the
soldiers hear an incoming jeep
then crouch down and wait to ambush it
with grenade launchers
the jeep gets blown up by the squad and
then they go over to it to pick off the
remaining soldiers
tapper takes out the ss patch from an
officer as a trophy and pulls one of his
golden teeth out
kirk kills a survivor from the explosion
as butchy looks for maps and coded
messages
kirk finds another survivor who seems to
be in better shape than the rest of his
men
when they realize he's a major butchie
decides to box him
however he doesn't seem too interested
and calls the others pigs for looting
his men's things
another survivor wakes up and butchy
bashes his head in which makes the major
change his mind about fighting so the
two of them start swinging punches at
each other
the nazi major seems to be a bit better
in hand-to-hand combat
so chris comes over and kills him then
chris turns to his man orders them to
back up because he realized that they
made a wrong turn on the way
before they leave tapper also takes one
of the nazis coats
as they walk through the countryside
they hear someone in the woods in front
so the squad stops and waits until they
see a group of refugees come out of
hiding
the group continues on their journey and
tapper runs out to them as a woman with
a child waits for him
he gives her the coat the gold teeth he
has collected and the ss patch
the squad continues their journey to the
outpost through flaming villages and the
desolate countryside when chris tells
them that the outpost they are going to
is actually a castle that they have to
safeguard
when they arrive at the castle the squad
sees one of the other guards sleeping in
a jeep outside
they wake him up and he immediately runs
in calling to his man that they can
finally leave
the squad walks into the castle to see
the other men hurrying to get out of
there as soon as they can
before they leave butchie asks them to
leave their radio in the castle
chris is suspicious about why they are
in such a hurry to leave since the place
is so nice and the commanding officer
tells him that some of them would like
to make furlough so he lets them leave
later the men are making lunch in the
kitchen when chris decides to take a
look around the house
something eugene is already doing he
finds a piano and sits down to play
the music echoes through the empty
castle and all of its messed up nooks
and crannies
chris walks inside the main study only
to find a massive burn mark on the floor
where the chair used to be and then he
hears some strange noises coming from
the vents unable to make out what they
are
butchie hears someone in the bathroom
and goes to check on it finding the door
locked and as he walks away
the door opens they all gather in the
den later eating and relaxing
when they hear strange noises prompting
them to get their weapons and check it
out
tapard and butchie take the main
staircase and check all the doors on the
second floor
kirk and chris hear the sound close to
them but they can't make out what it is
as they walk into a room with covered up
things
they get to the kitchen and realize the
noise is coming from the other room and
as they prepare to enter it the doors
abruptly open
both men continue to the other room when
they reach drapes cordoning out the next
one
once they pull the drapes kirk and chris
see someone hanging in front of the
window
who disappears when the wind blows the
covers away later that night the men sit
in front of the fire and tell each other
ghost stories while taprt is looking out
the windows through his scope
eugene tells them about a journal he
found in the basement that belonged to
an 18 year old nazi who took over the
house
suddenly they all hear knocking noises
coming from the fireplace and chris
tells them that it sounds like morse
code so eugene deciphers it into the
sentence i have no legs
the sound stops abruptly chris orders
his men to rest but stay cautious
he tells tapper to take the attic
because it's the best vantage point to
tell if someone is coming
eugene is in the basement and he's
trying to open a chest before giving up
and sitting down on it
he sees a photo of the family that lived
in the castle and reads about them in
the nazi soldiers journal
suddenly his candle goes out he tries
his lighter as something appears behind
him for a moment and when he lights the
candle again
he sees that the family has disappeared
from the photo taprt sets up with a
rifle on the attic window
he takes a look through his scope when
somebody appears behind him in the room
as he's observing through the scope he
sees a hanged man for a moment
then gone the next tapper keeps looking
when suddenly a ghost boy appears right
in front of his view
scaring him there's a bang on the
wardrobe behind him too
tapered goes outside to check more
closely until he notices chris staring
at him from inside the castle
the next day eugene kirk and chris sit
on the balcony and talk about how fast
the previous squad wanted to get out of
there
eugene tells the others a story about
tapper that happened when they were in
paris
he'd found tapered sitting in a pool of
blood surrounded by the carved up bodies
of seven teenage hitler youth kids
tappert was sitting with a string in his
hands as if he were playing cat's cradle
with someone and with a scary look in
his eyes
chris says that he's glad tappard is on
their side when he suddenly shows up on
the balcony
tapper tells them that the last squad
wanted to get out of there because they
heard a radio transmission about 50
german soldiers passing by the castle on
their way to strasbourg
he advises his comrades that they should
hide in the woods until they pass
but chris thinks they should safeguard
the castle tappert says that he'll go to
the attic to try to spot them in time
and tells eugene to join him
once there they begin to prepare it when
they find a pentagram on the floor under
the rug
eugene's theory is that the nazis must
have killed the people that lived in the
house in a ritualistic way
explaining it with hitler's obsession
with the occult they don't discuss it
further and begin moving the wardrobe
from one side of the room to the other
when the wardrobe touches the pentagram
its door closes onto eugene's fingers
breaking them he thinks that tapper did
it on purpose and pushes him toward the
wardrobe
when he looks into the mirror he sees
the reflection of a hang woman
later eugene chris and kirk listen to
one of the frequencies on the radio
when they hear something extra eerie a
woman's voice can be heard saying that
they are coming for them
they all agreed that the castle might be
haunted and kirk suggests they should
leave even before the nazis come
suddenly morse code can be heard coming
from the fireplace again
eugene deciphers it as if you leave and
as he's writing something takes over his
hand and finishes the line with you will
die
that night the squad prepares for the
arrival of the nazi troops
with tapard in the attic and the rest
hiding behind a barricade near the
entrance
when the nazis get their taprt spots
them and signals the rest while the
troops gather outside and surround the
castle
they try to enter but since the doors
are locked they get back in their trucks
and prepare to leave when a loud banging
noise from the attic can be hurt
the nazis come back and begin to attack
the castle with tappard only able to
take one of them out at a time
suddenly they throw a grenade in front
of the barricade and butchy jumps on it
taking its full hit
chris gets thrown across the room so he
gets up dizzy and confused
but still shooting whatever nazi he can
see more nazis come inside and chris
runs to the basement
hiding under the stairs and allowing
himself ample cover to sneakily attack
the officers following him
meanwhile eugene hides in the study when
he hears someone behind him and then
strange voices coming from the vent
he gets his gun ready to shoot but when
he jumps from behind the desk he faces
no nazi but a ghost
that abruptly bursts into flames a
german soldier finds butchie's decimated
body in the hallway as well as a second
one lying next to him
he checks the second body when chris
turns and kills him and the two others
that show up
kirk is hiding in the bathroom when he
hears drowning noises in children's
laughter
he looks over to the tub and sees a nazi
soldier drowning in it
tapper hears something in the attic and
follows it only to find a nazi hanging
in the middle of the room
the following morning the squad is
gathered around butchie and consider
giving him enough morphine to end his
suffering if necessary
chris orders them to take the bodies of
the nazis outside and when eugene and
kirk bring them over to the truck they
are horrified by the sight of what
tapper has done with them
later they talk about hauntings and
ghosts when eugene suddenly figures out
that everything they experienced in the
house was something that the nazis did
to the family that lived in the castle
the family met a gruesome and the day
the nazis came to their home
the father was burned alive tied to a
chair in the study
the sun was drowned in front of his
mother's eyes and the daughter was
hanged from the rafters in the attic
their bodies were never buried so chris
asks if that's the reason why they
became ghosts
eugene goes to check on buchi while
there he gets scared by tapper
who joins him and tells him his version
of the paris story with the hitler youth
eugene realizes that not everything can
be easily explained and that tapper's
story carries a different kind of weight
which he dug up when he reminded him of
the story earlier
later chris has a nightmare about the
tub in which a ghost appears to him and
tries to drown him
while being pulled into the water he
sees three masked soldiers that turn
into nurses and back to soldiers
before he wakes up the next day they
tend to butchie and talk about leaving
the castle
even in the face of being
court-martialed for leaving their posts
chris and eugene go back to the basement
to search for anything that might have
belonged to the family
eugene goes to find his lighter and
chris finds the journal only he sees
that the pages are empty
when eugene comes back he acts all
ominously about it then kirk suddenly
calls them to come back
butchie is awake and keeps saying that
this isn't real and that it was them
before he dies he grabs chris and tells
him to remember
that night the remaining squad members
discuss leaving the castle again
chris says that they should bury the
bodies of the family first and ask to
see the journal to find information
the pages are suddenly filled with
writing again eugene tells him that
he'll check the journal for clues as to
where the bodies are
but says that they should leave the
castle first the boys bury butchie in
the garden before they leave
walking back to base camp they see a
trashed ambulance on the road as well as
the same group of refugees as before
they keep going further and talk about
the possibility of being trapped in the
afterlife until they pass by a strange
building
later they reach the same ambulance and
decide to turn around
the squad walks back through the
destroyed city they passed before and
sleeps in the woods that night
tapper has a dream that he's being
hanged from the rafters in the attic but
he wakes in the woods and sees the word
vetrelect next to his sleeping bag
the next day the squad passes by the
ambulance again and when they turn
around they are faced with the bodies of
the nazis they killed earlier
eventually they arrive back at the
castle thinking that it won't let them
leave
that night chris thinks that he can
communicate with the spirits and find
out where they are buried
tapered says the word vetrolek and
eugene remembers reading it in the nazi
journal
it's an old muslim curse stating that if
you let evil happen it can come back to
haunt you tenfold
that night the men wait for the ghost to
show up and communicate
footsteps appear before them and are
headed straight for chris stopping
before him
he sees a ghost that grabs him and
starts dragging him to another part of
the estate
chris begs them to shoot the ghost and
even though he can't see it taproot
still shoots in the direction of the
ghost the others follow chris to the
other house and when they enter
something strange begins happening to
them and they see images from a
different place in time
then they find chris next to the bodies
of the family
later the soldiers bury the bodies and
find the last page of the journal stuck
to the father
eugene reads the last journal entry that
says that the family wasn't french
but an afghan and that they risked their
lives to save as many jews as they can
the page also says that the mother
performed a veteran curse on the nazi
soldiers
haunting them to the grave later at the
castle eugene remembers another entry in
the journal and reads it again
saying that the words have changed now
reading that burying the bodies only
gave the ghost the power to return from
the dead
suddenly the lights go out and as
tapered sits in the middle of the
pentagram on the attic the ghosts show
up in the castle
they each attack one soldier and the men
try to combat and shoot them
but nothing works against them all of a
sudden the ghosts begin to glitch and
the mutilated body of butchie appears to
chris
telling him that this isn't real then a
ghost takes him to a mirror
telling him to remember chris waits in
the present
surrounded by nurses and a doctor then
takes a look around the room and sees
his fallen comrades
he pulls his covers away to see that he
has no legs and the doctor tells him
that his memories will come back in a
few moments
chris begins to remember that he was
actually a soldier in afghanistan
and that his squad was supposed to save
a doctor that was helping the americans
their mission was to extract him to a
safe house in kabul
in the present the doctor tells him that
they are in a facility
hooked to a computer simulation made to
help soldiers recover from ptsd as their
injuries heal
chris goes into another memory where
taproot is talking to two boys playing
cat's cradle and giving one of them a
toy man for his son
the squad enters the home and the
contact with the doctor tells the family
that they have to leave immediately when
he gets a message that the extraction
won't be possible since enemy combatants
are coming to the house
he tells the doctor to hide them in the
wall but the squad doesn't want to leave
the family to get slaughtered though
they still listen to his orders
the enemy combatants arrive and
immediately begin voicing their
suspicions about the doctor's possible
collaboration with the americans
the men grab the children as the mother
begs them to let them go
nevertheless they still drown the boy
and hang the daughter as the soldiers
watch from behind the hiding spot
having already decided that there are
too many of them to engage with
lastly they soak the father in kerosene
and burn him while the squad does
nothing
after the enemy leaves tappert sees that
the little boys have also been killed
as soon as the squad is out of the house
the mother comes out screaming with a
bomb
and even though butchie tackles her they
all blow up
chris comes back to reality and asks the
doctor why they did what they did
he explains that they had to create a
sim in which they were in world war ii
but in no immediate danger
butchie woke up one day for unknown
reasons and when he saw his body
he simply died chris thinks that
everything that they saw and heard in
the castle was them sending subliminal
messages to themselves
he also tells the doctor that something
is wrong with the simulation and asks
about vetrelek
the nurse tells him that they all said
the word at one point or another when
the soldier remembers the moments after
the explosion with the mother saying the
word veteran to him
suddenly the lights begin to flicker in
the facility and the ghosts appear there
as well while chris is saying that they
brought them to life and gave them power
the soldiers begin to convulse and chris
begs to be brought back to the sim to
save his men
the nurse agrees and brings him back
inside but tells him that his memory
will be wiped
chris wakes up in the woods and sees the
apparition on the adjacent tree and asks
what it wants
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