Abigail Breslin has #GhostWorldProblems in the new movie “Haunter,” in theaters in New York today. The actor -- who has built an impressive resume with “Signs,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Zombieland,”and the upcoming “Ender’s Game” and “August: Osage County”—takes the lead in a big way in this paranormal suspense tale with a twist about a 15-year-old girl specter.
Directed by Vincenzo Natali, (“Cube,” “Splice”) Breslin is Lisa, a ghost who exists in a “Groundhog Day” of an afterlife with her parents and younger brother. They keep reliving the day in 1986; a day before her 16th birthday, and the day they all died. But it is Breslin’s character who becomes self-aware of her situation, and proceeds to haunt Olivia (Eleanor Zichy), the teen daughter of her home’s current occupants. Meanwhile, she herself is haunted by the malevolent ghost of a serial killer (Stephen McHattie) with the power to possess others – and a connection to Lisa, Olivia and a series of other girls.
Although McHattie delivers a creepy turn as “The Pale Man,” and Breslin is aided by Zichy and Samantha Weinstein, who plays another ghost, “Haunter” really rests on the performance on the 17-year-old actor. The film takes place in one home throughout a few time frames and is told from Lisa’s perspective – which means Breslin is in nearly, if not every, scene. Whether she is alone or interacting with another actor, she is working hard to portray a strong young woman in incredibly creepy environs.
Breslin joined me by phone from her home in Los Angeles to talk about her duties in “Haunter,” as well as share a little about her thoughts on the paranormal and her plans for Halloween.
