Dissemination

Bag of Bones (Mike Garris 2011)

As a ghost story, Bag of Bones differs from many of the recently made ghost stories such as Paranormal Activity or American Horror Story (Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk 2011) in the way that Bag of Bones is a classic ghost story, where the ghosts are sites of memory and index of past traumas and crimes. While Sara Tidwell (the main ghost) is out for revenge, she has to mainly act through others, casting a curse on later generations and getting Mike to act out her vengeance. She only appears in visions and dreams, never directly interacting with the world around her. The world must be set aright again, for as with all classical ghosts time has gone out of joint and only an acknowledgement of past sins can cleanse the past. At the end of the day, Bag of Bones brings nothing new to the genre and seems at times old-fashioned for its proper ghosts. For this reason it also has its own distinct charm.