Close-up of Alan Ritchson as Butchie, looking at something in Ghosts of War
When Ghosts of War was released in 2020, it didn't get a lot of traction and gained mostly unfavorable reviews from the critics. From the current perspective, this horror film set in the penultimate year of World War II hits differently, with its effective mix of not only suspense and action but also supernatural and psychological aspects.
Admittedly, the initial premise of Eric Bress' film doesn't come off as very original, as the war setting isn't anything new to the horror genre, thanks to such outings as Overlord, Trench 11, The Bunker, etc. Few films, however, offer truly interesting concepts within the genre wrapping, mostly content with finding new ways to introduce various monsters to the historical setting. A notable exception was M.J. Bassett's 2002 film, Deathwatch, which presented war itself as a monster. And Ghosts of War, despite all the plot differences, leans towards the same idea, focusing on the way war shapes horrific moral dilemmas and showing how guilt and shame over certain actions or inaction can create their very own monsters and curses. And now that star Alan Ritchson is dominating on Netflix with his new war thriller War Machine, now is the perfect time to revisit this underseen war thriller. What Is 'Ghosts of War' About? In 1944, five American troopers of the 82nd Airborne Division arrive at a chateau located somewhere in rural France. They are under orders to guard the place, and at first none of the men think much about the fact that the unit who had the previous shift seem rattled and can't get out of there fast enough. The guys barely manage to settle in when strange, seemingly paranormal occurrences start happening all around them. Between the mysterious knocking coming from the fireplace—which seems to be using Morse code to send ominous messages—and a journal that details the terrible fate of the family that used to live here, the characters succumb to the dark presence that lurks around them. German soldiers arrive and attack, but at this point, the Americans have already come to realize that what they're dealing with inside the house might be much more dangerous than the enemies they are trying to keep out.Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Ten questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 10INSTINCT 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10RESOURCE 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10THREAT 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10SKILL 04 Which of these comes most naturally to you? Your strongest skill is your best survival asset — use it accordingly. AHacking, pattern recognition, finding the exploit in any system — digital or human. BMechanical skill — I can strip an engine, rig a weapon, or fix anything with whatever's around. CReading people — knowing when someone's lying, hiding something, or about to run. DDiscipline and endurance — mental and physical. I outlast things rather than overpower them. EPiloting, navigation, knowing how to get from A to B when every route is dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10AUTHORITY 05 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10ENVIRONMENT 06 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10ALLIANCE 07 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10TRUTH 08 A comfortable lie or a devastating truth — which can you actually live with? Some worlds offer one. Some offer the other. Very few offer both. AThe truth, no matter the cost. I'd rather live in a brutal reality than a beautiful cage. BNeither — truth and lies are luxuries. What matters is surviving the next hour. CI've learned to live with ambiguity. Some truths don't have clean answers. DThe truth — but deployed strategically. Knowing something others don't is power. EThe truth. Even when it means confronting something in yourself you'd rather leave buried. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10MORALITY 09 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10PURPOSE 10 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. Read all five — your result is the one that resonates most deeply. 💊 The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things, the places where the official version doesn't quite line up. In the Matrix, that instinct is the difference between life and permanent digital sedation. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you. The machines built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. 🔥 Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. 🌧️ Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. 🏜️ Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, pattern recognition, political awareness, and an understanding that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic, earn its respect, and perhaps, in time, reshape it entirely. 🚀 Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You're someone who finds meaning in being part of something larger than yourself. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. Whatever you are, you fight. And in Star Wars, that willingness is what makes the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ The Gothic setting of the mansion and all the potential chills that come with it can bring another reference to a supernatural horror set during WWII to mind—the unfortunate sequel to an already unnecessary remake, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, which came out in 2014. Unlike the latter, though, Ghosts of War doesn't only utilize war as a backdrop to a classic ghost story about a vengeful spirit who wants retribution but incorporates it into the emotional core here: war isn't the background of the horror; it's the catalyst for it. Eric Bress isn't a novice in genre cinema, having previously worked on the Final Destination franchise—both the second and fourth films—as a screenwriter and having directed The Butterfly Effect. In Ghosts of War, which he both wrote and directed, he makes effective use of space, which remains pretty limited for most of the story, making it work for both horror and the prolonged action sequence depicting the attack by the Germans. The Cast of ‘Ghosts of War’ and Its Effective Twist Elevate It From Being a Typical Ghost Story Like many movies with a clear anti-war message, Ghosts of War has a very specific set of characters and a very particular cast that all help to sharpen the idea that most people who find themselves in the trenches aren't black and white heroes or villains. Just ordinary people who try to hold on to their sanity amid chaos and madness. That is especially evident in the case of the future Jack Reacher, Ritchson, who plays one of the privates with his trademark natural charisma of a man who could've been the hero of the story and the one to make it to the end credits in some other scenario. Here, however, he unexpectedly becomes the first and almost random victim, once again emphasizing the idea of war as the dark force that devours everything and everyone in its path. Other actors in the core cast fully contribute to this effect too. Brenton Thwaites plays the unit's commander, who does his best to lead but comes off just as confused as the men he's supposed to be in charge of. And Kyle Gallner, who hadn't fully reached his Scream King status at that point but already had several noticeable genre outings under his belt, seems to be channeling his experience in The Haunting in Connecticut, playing a character who is probably the most perceptive of the supernatural presence inside the mansion. Rounded out by Skylar Astin and Theo Rossi, this group comes off as a bunch of regular young men who are roughened and exhausted by the war, but try to stick to some semblance of normalcy by gathering around the fireplace and scaring each other by relaying terrible incidents as if they were campfire stories. Related Alan Ritchson Addresses Growing Expectations for ‘Reacher’ Season 4 The hit series is eyeing a 2026 return. Posts By Chris McPherson While Ghosts of War isn't by any means a subtle film, the gradual dissolution of the familiar reality is what it does best, hinting at a possible twist with the help of several discrepancies in the story, noticeable to history buffs, and the mention of the famous Ambrose Bierce's short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. When Bress' film first came out, a lot of the criticism it faced was aimed specifically at the movie's ending, claiming that both the twist and the following resolution sort of render the previous events pointless. In the context of the movie's broader meaning, though, there is another way to see this controversial ending. In its final sequence, Ghosts of War seems to be fully embracing its psychological horror origin, showing that the only way to deal with trauma is to go back to the roots of it and address it directly, instead of going through the soothing motions that are merely an illusion of moving forward. Like Ghosts of War R Horror Thriller War Fantasy Release Date July 3, 2020 Runtime 94 minutes Director Eric Bress Writers Eric Bress Cast See All
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