A ghost is, in most tellings, the spirit of a person with unfinished business on earth. Sometimes that business is vengeance; sometimes it’s simply an inability to let go. In Double Walker, it’s both.

Upon her death, a young woman is given a choice: live one more day as a human, or live forever as a ghost –with the catch tht she can only be seen by believers and sinners. She chooses the latter and wakes up naked in a forest. From the first frames, the young woman seems like something is off like she is seeing the world for the first time. She appears innocent, but by the time she murders her first victim you realize that she also harbours some intense rage.

As the story unfolds she encounters man after man, and in quick fashion they almost entire fail her. The first man we see finds her in the forest and after taking her back to his place –ostensibly to “help”– he almost immediately tries to have sex with her. In short order he finds himself with a spoon embedded in his neck. This sets the tone for most of her interactions, excepting on kindly cinema manager, with whom she develops a relationship.

The film is trying to tell two stories: one of a ghost out for vengeance on the men who killed her, and another of a ghost trying to experience life again. The choice between these two threads provides all of the conflict in the story, and while I won’t spoil how it resolves the choice, I will say that it isn’t going to be exactly what you expect. There little ambiguity in either story either, as the men she murders are all soon proven predators, and the life she gets to experience through the cinema manager is sweet.

The film isn’t entirely successful, at just 80 minutes long and with a story told in multiple, non-linear time frames, it feels at times both underbaked and overstuffed. The cast is good though, and Sylvie Mix (seen earlier this year in Poser) once again has an interesting screen presence, both innocent and unsettling. Quinn Armstrong (director of last years Survival Skills) also makes an appearance as a grieving father, and proves that he has skills on both sides of the camera.

Double Walker is slower and more contemplative than advertised, so if you are looking for a fun series of ghostly murders then it isn’t going to satisfy. If you’re looking for something a little more thoughtful and experimental though, then it is definitely worth your time.

Double Walker will be available on-demand this Friday, November 12th, 2021.

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