1996 Directed by Stephen Hopkins
Sir Robert Beaumont is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great until the crew discovers the mutilated corpse of the project's foreman, seemingly killed by a lion. After several more attacks, Patterson calls in famed hunter Charles Remington, who has finally met his match in the bloodthirsty lions.
Michael Douglas Val Kilmer Tom Wilkinson John Kani Emily Mortimer Bernard Hill Brian McCardie Om Puri Henry Cele Kurt Egelhof Satchu Annamalai Teddy Reddy Raheem Khan Jack Devnarain Glen Gabela Richard Nwamba Nick Lorentz Alex Ferns Kaycey Padayachee Giles Masters Justin Gifford Patrick Gifford George Middlekoop
Lance Brown Bob Beher Simon Kaye Kim Secrist Bruce Stambler John Roesch Hilda Hodges Donald O. Mitchell Gary Mundheim Donald L. Warner Jr. Frank A. Montaño Gordon Ecker Becky Sullivan Steve Mann Glenn Hoskinson Steve Nelson Carolyn Tapp Richard E. Yawn Mary Jo Lang Mark Pappas Rick Hart Shawn Sykora
Constellation Films Paramount Douglas/Reuther Productions Bernina Film Mont Blanc Entertainment GmbH
黑夜幽靈, Привид та Пітьма, Привид і Темрява, Duch i Mrok, 暗夜獵殺, Der Geist und die Dunkelheit, Spiriti nelle tenebre, L'Ombre et la Proie, Caçadores na Noite, Призрак и Тьма, Los demonios de la noche, Ragadozók, Lovci lvů, 黑夜幽灵, Σκιά Μέσα στο Σκοτάδι, הרוח והחושך, A Sombra e a Escuridão, Hayaletler ve Karanlık, Призрака и мрака, 고스트 앤 다크니스, Привид і Пітьма, Savannens härskare, ゴースト&ダークネス, El Fantasma y la Oscuridad, Lovci levov, Yön metsästäjät, Vaiduoklis ir tamsa, მოჩვენება და წყვდიადი, Le fantôme et les ténèbres, 暗夜雄獅
USAR
Greece15
Italy
AustraliaM
Germany12
Hungary16
Brazil14
FranceU
Czechia12+
Australia
Brazil
Czechia
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Italy
USA
„They are not lions, they are -The ghost and the darkness-”
(John Kani as Samuel, Co-worker of John H. Patterson)
Hi everybody, this is one of the films many critics and audiences hated, but I totally like. A typical old school adventure action movie with big pictures and some thriller/ horror elements. I was a fan, since the first watch and still can watch it with big pleasure. The motion picture tells the story of two lions, which terrorized a construction side in late 19th century Africa.
„When I was growing up, there was a bully in my hometown. He used to terrorize everybody...“
(Charles Remington)
Based on the book…
You can tell that veteran novelist and screenwriter William Goldman had written this with aspirations of achieving a lavish, old-fashioned David Lean colonial biographical drama about a real-life 19th century bridge engineer that found himself in an African lion take on the moody adventure-horror of Jaws (pretty insane true story!), and there's certainly enough money and talent (including cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and composer Jerry Goldsmith) that that version of this movie might have been possible, but director Stephen Hopkins' talents are better served by something like the gnarly, stupid and deliriously stylized Predator 2 than they are the stoic handsomeness called for by this material. So despite this being perfectly sturdy it often feels a little thinly sketched and unimaginative…
Based on the real life account of two lions that terrorized a rail road camp in late 19th century Africa, Stephen Hopkins' "The Ghost and the Darkness" is a tension-rich, old fashioned adventure. With its lovely savannah vistas, rousing score, and engaging characters, the film is fully appealing. It is a man versus nature tale where nature has the upperhand, unfolding with potent cinematic elements.
"The Ghost and the Darkness" is built around the story of the turn-of-the-century lion attacks that killed over 100 people in an African railroad camp. Revolving around the English engineer and the American hunter caught in the middle of it all, the narrative finds the men and their local colleagues struggling to find a solution…
Another underrated 90's thriller that got all kinds of shit thrown at it back in 1996 by the critics and every other asshole out there. They can all suck a big bag of dicks. Val Kilmer plays real life Irish engineer turned lion hunter Patterson. "His accent comes and goes" one critic complained. Boo hoo! And Douglas plays Remington, a fictional American big game hunter that joins Patterson's hunt of a couple of man killing lions in Tsavo, Africa back in 1896. I've always felt this movie to be one hell of an adventure film with very strong and tense moments of man vs beast. Great booming score by Jerry Goldsmith. I remember it won an Oscar for sound despite all the crap thrown at it. A shame it's only out on a bare bones dvd and looks like there won't be a bluray anytime soon.
For 45 minutes, this is a very boring movie about an Irish guy (played by a sedate Val Kilmer) failing to build a bridge in Africa because some man-eating lions (or, rather, some suggestive editing and very poor lion special effects) keep killing his workers. Then Michael Douglas shows up with a Southern-fried accent and a big flowing mullet and the movie at least gets a little more fun, though not enough to save it. For a much more entertaining film about big game hunting from the same director, check out Predator 2.
Good god was Val Kilmer handsome in 1996. That was one helluva beautiful man. Time sure can be cruel. Seems hellbent on being so, even.
I hadn’t seen this since the cinema in 1996 when I was 19 years old. My old man and I took in a screening at the famed East Bethel theater, and as I recall, we enjoyed it quite a bit. This film is as handsome as Val Kilmer. Great locations, lovely film grain. I’ve always liked Stephen Hopkins, and he adjusts his slick, Renny Harlin-esque style to suit the tone of the piece rather deftly here.
It’s fine, but more slack and less involving than I remembered. Michael Douglas isn’t as amusing in his role…
It could be argued that by 1996, movies like 'The Ghost And The Darkness' had already had their day. This type of lavish, pulpy, filmed-in-exotic-climes adventure romp was getting squeezed out by the march of technology and the dominance of franchises and superannuated digital spectaculars (this was the Summer of the first 'Mission Impossible', 'Twister' and 'Independence Day').
So it's appropriate that the movie as made carries a tangible whiff of the end of an era about it. So many of the principals here find themselves at the tail-end of storied careers that were receding from view and either in or approaching their final act. 'The Ghost And The Darkness' is one of the last William Goldman scripts, one of…
This was a pretty fun movie. But imagine watching it on a 2.9: 1 aspect ratio where the black screen takes up most of the screen in 2022.
That rare piece of filmmaking that may seem dated by most average current tastes, more appealed to digitally stitched franchise spectacles, while the immortal charm of this relies in the very slice of old-fashioned spirit this carries so proudly and still amusingly to this day. The Ghost and the Darkness might just be one of the most harrowing disturbing films you ever going to watch, that actually manages to be pretty sweet and feel-good to watch.
A blend of based on true events horror with ‘out on Africa’ adventure meets animal killer movie in close veins to Jaws – lions version; and… a buddy movie?! Well yes, and is just as pleasing as it sounds! Made it better by director’s…
This movie is just so awesome. Until-recently-underappreciated Val Kilmer and a peak of his powers Micheal Douglas are perfectly cast. The former is focused and driven, the latter simmering with a barely-controlled carnivore intensity.
The traps. The hospital! The sheer terror of the animal ferocity. Jaws will always be the gold standard of making one fear nature's capacity for killing, but this is probably my second. There are lion violence scenes that absolutely chill my blood.
Anyone who has followed me for long enough knows how much a movie friend my mom is to me, and I called her halfway into this because she's the only person I know IRL who loves this movie even more than I do. A…
Many have pointed it out here already that this isn’t really reinventing the wheel when it comes to creature features but it’s so dependably put together I can’t exactly dismiss it either. The main draw here is that this is the kind of sturdy adventure studio filmmaking that rarely gets made on this large a scale anymore. Might not that have meant anything when it was released but it sure does now. Yeah, it’s not the most exciting (the first half especially is almost painfully slow) and Kilmer is pretty dry as the lead but once Michael Douglas shows up and kicks this thing into it’s hunt focused second half, it’s a pretty solid time. Gets surprisingly mean at points and the illusion of the killer lions is nearly seamless.
For the longest time I thought the title was The Ghost In The Darkness. Its not that but I think that’s honestly a better title than The Ghost And The Darkness.
This honestly feels like it should have been a Herzog film. It’s got every trademark of one: tribes, a full African location shoot, plenty of narration just waiting for Herzog’s whispers, the vastness in location needed for his trademark style of cinematography, etc. Kinski would have been great as the lead too (though I think he was dead by this point).
Unfortunately we got the dude who did Predator 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and a whole lotta other stuff you haven’t seen.
I mean this isn’t horrible.…
