Looking around for information about Spectral, you’ll notice that the film was slated to be released in theaters this summer. That usually is a poor sign for a film, but it has a new home on Netflix as their next original release and the trailer makes it seem like it is right where it was always meant to be.
The film apparently had a long road to release according to Slashfilm, with the completed film getting shelved by Universal until it was slated for release this summer. Then it fell off again before ending up in front of Netflix to become their next film. And while all of that sounds like a recipe for a box office bomb, it might be fine for a movie that you can easily watch from the comfort of your own living room. Slashfilm agrees with that and shares the plot for the film:
Spectral centers on an engineer who joins forces with a Special Ops team after mysterious phantoms code-named Spectral begin killing people in a battle-scarred city. The film boasts weaponry by Weta Workshop and VFX by Weta Digital, and a score by Junkie XL (Mad Max: Fury Road).
Other sites seem to compare it to Black Hawk Down with ghosts, but I would rather call it a grittier version of Ghostbusters. Instead of people being slimed or scared senseless, we have soldiers in the streets being murdered by ghosts and trying to shoot them with American military superiority. It’s basically the reboot from this summer, so I can understand why they didn’t put it in theaters. That or Universal just figured people were not interested in movies about ghosts.
Either way, Spectral will hit Netflix on December 9th and you can judge for yourself. It seems like the kind of b-movie fun that is perfect for a quick Netflix watch in the afternoon or as a fix at midnight on a Saturday.
