If you have a summer home in Cape Cod, you may want to make a visit there in the winter to see if ghosts are using your toilet and kitchen. Sarah (MacKenzie Nimmo) hears about these “winter people” and tries to convince her mother (Rachel Harker) of their existence when they go to get the house ready for the impending cold. Mom, following the lead of most moms throughout film history, doesn’t believe her.
Stories about ghosts are always one of two things: scary or touching. “The Winter People” falls into the “touching” category. There isnâ’t anything eerie about it, and it doesn’t have any of those moments where ghosts are slamming doors or throwing people down the stairs. No, this is one of those tales that is supposed to leave you feeling kind of comforted by the fact that the dead are hanging around, and it sort of succeeds.
In order for this film to make more of an emotional impact, there should have been more of an emphasis on the spirits. Instead we get a story which seems more focused on the divorce of Sarah’s parents and less on Sarah’s ghost busting. Granted, the plot is more realistic this way, but a ghost story is a ghost story, and it would’ve been nice to get to know the folks from the afterlife a bit better.
