Double Walker is a stripped down ghost story that doesn’t take its premise far enough

Double Walker poses the ultimate philosophical question and then runs with it for an entire film: would you rather live one final day as a human or live for eternity as a ghost? The crux of this question comes down to whether or not you’re ready to move on from this life to the next or if fear is holding you steady to the mortal realm.

We’ve seen countless stories explore what comes after death. How many times have paranormal investigators, fictional or not, tried to “help” the undead “move on” from our world to whatever lies beyond it? But what if those ghosts want o to hang out and see what comes next for themselves?

Those are the questions that director and co-writer Colin West explores alongside co-writer, producer and star Sylvie Mix. Double Walker is a bare-bones ghost story, both in terms of plot and budget, as it’s a small independent horror movie.

Double Walker feels like a reflective short story brought to life

Since the premise is so simple, Double Walker has the freedom to explore however it wants to, but unfortunately, the movie feels too circular for its own good. Scene after scene presented similar situations and philosophical platitudes, resulting in a film overstaying its welcome despite its truncated 70-minute runtime.

Mix plays the central character, Ghost, who opted to live forever as a paranormal entity. She doesn’t have a name or even a real backstory because that’s not really what the movie wants to focus on, which makes the pontification and conversations between Ghost and the people she meets on her journey all the more vital.

Her beliefs are challenged by some characters who believe there is something better in the hereafter, but Ghost has missed out on the chance forever. Is this how angry spirits are made? By the realization that they’ve chosen wrong?

Even though some elements of Double Walker did not work for me, I appreciate that the filmmakers strived to create a quietly introspective movie that almost feels like a literary short story brought to life. Double Walker is a stripped-down ghost story that doesn’t take its premise far enough, but it does manage to illuminate potential answers to the questions we’ve all pondered at least once.

Double Walker is out now on-demand and digital.