Kyle (Aaron Dean Eisenberg) is a college student who works doing clean-up work to make extra money. When he's asked to clean out the basement of an old woman's house, he discovers an ancient-looking coffin. Instead of disposing of it, he takes it home and he and his roommate, the wheelchair-bound Sutton (J. Walter Holland), examine it, finding that it is filled with intricate gears and clockwork. The coffin winds like a music box, and they discover that if one turns the key and lies in the box, they have an out-of-body experience where they can move about like a ghost until the gears wind down. Kyle's friend Platt tries the coffin, and through his research, learns that the box had been built centuries ago by a scientist who was reviled by religious leaders. As the guys used the coffin more and more, they discover that it's changing them. In addition, they begin to be stalked by a monster.

Still, having said that, there's enough happening in The Ghostmaker to keep it from simply being a derivative movie. The experiments with the coffin go from being fascinating fun to reckless behavior which threatens every character. The story does a good job of having the characters do predictable things and surprising things when they are in their ghost-like form. Kudos to Borrelli and co-writer Scott Svatos for the intricate backstory on the coffin, its creator, and the musical theory behind it. The finale becomes a mixture of real and supernatural action and a certain characters come-uppance is satisfying.

I hate to say this about a low-budget horror movie, but The Ghostmaker is simply overwritten. Borrelli certainly deserves credit for attempting to flesh out the characters and their backgrounds, but if you want to make a kick-ass horror movie, sometimes you have to get out of the way and allow the coffin-based action go. Instead, we have to learn that Kyle has a drug problem and that he's in debt to his dealer, which serves as a motivating factor for his behavior. This leads to some really unnecessary scenes involving the dealer and a junkie which add nothing to the movie. A subplot concerning Sutton's feelings towards Kyle's girlfriend, Julie (Liz Fenning), does payoff at the end, but it takes a while to develop.

You can certainly do worse (trust me) than The Ghostmaker, despite its flaws. The movie has a slick look (Borrelli worked in the art department on many big movies) and the mixture of the gothic coffin and a modern setting works well. The good just barely outweighs the bad here and if you can ignore the whole drug dealer thing, you'll find a movie worth renting.

The Ghostmaker makes you wonder why anyone would try the coffin in the first place on DVD courtesy of Lionsgate. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing only a hint of grain at times and no defects from the source materials. The image is somewhat dark at times, even given the fact that this is a dark movie. The colors look fairly good, although the movie leans towards dark tones. The level of detail is good and the depth is acceptable for a DVD. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The track delivers nice stereo effects and there are moments when we get the sense of actions happening off-screen. The surround sound effects come to life during the coffin scenes and the reaper attacks provide subwoofer effects.

The Ghostmaker DVD contains several extra features. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Mauro Borrelli and Producers Ed Polgardy and Scott Rudolph. (They refer to the film by its original title "Box of Shadows" here.) "Behind the Box: The Making of The Ghostmaker" (23 minutes) is a three-part featurette which contains a generous amount of interviews with the cat and filmmakers, as well as on-set footage. The story and themes are discussed and the actors talk about their characters. Director Borrelli is profiled, as is the coffin itself, as the look of the movie is discussed. (The speakers do go a little overboard when talking about the addiction symbolism in the movie.) The DVD contains six DELTED SCENES. All of these are brief and most are simply longer versions of scenes from the movie or moments that show us something which the movie only implies. The final extra is a TRAILER for the film.