Jonathan Heap’s Ghosts of ’45 is a quiet descent into what happens when a man’s past refuses to stay buried, forcing him to finally confront it.
Joseph (Sal Landi) is an old man enjoying a morning on the park bench, reading the news. He is approached by a stranger, Mrs. Hirsch (Caroline Lagerfelt), who asks him two strange questions: Is he Jewish, and is he looking for a place to live? Joseph humors her and says yes to both questions. In fact, he’s already living with his daughter Anna (Jennifer Olsberg) and granddaughter Sophie (Gemma Adams), who would need to come with him.
Joseph ultimately accepts Mrs. Hirsch’s offer, and the four enter a comfortable life of candlelit dinners, tense family conversations, and innocent bedtime stories with Sophie. But something is off. Once the lights go off, something won’t let Joseph rest. He climbs out of bed, flips on a light, and walks down the hallway. What’s waiting for him isn’t an intruder — it’s a memory dragging Joseph back to the war and the Holocaust.
Joseph ultimately accepts Mrs. Hirsch’s offer, and the four enter a comfortable life of candlelit dinners, tense family conversations, and innocent bedtime stories with Sophie.
Based on the story by Ben Maccabee, the film is a horror short inspired by the atrocities and the aftermath of the Holocaust. It follows our protagonist, Joseph, as he spends his final days providing for his family, all the while literally haunted by the ghosts of his past.
Heap sets the stage perfectly for a man worn down by the war and beautifully slips into the horror elements with ghastly effects, haunting sound design, and creepy performances from the supporting cast. Then, in horror fashion, everything goes off the rails in an instant, and we are on a wild ride into Joseph’s past. The ending is a bit familiar, but then again, I wasn’t expecting to get there until the final moments.
In Ghosts of ’45, a period horror set not so long ago, Jonathan Heap earns his scares by making you uncomfortably comfortable before he takes it all away.
"…What's waiting for him isn't an intruder — it's a memory…"
