The Canterville Ghost (1996) - Does this really exist?

I confess to fast forwarding the credits to this film at the very beginning, so I had no idea who was in it.  I'm a general fan of horror/supernatural tales, so I was happy to give this one a go (simply because I found it in the relevant genre on a streaming service) and I noticed it was by none other than Oscar Wilde. Besides the film of his life starring Stephen Fry, I don't really know an awful lot about him, besides he was an author/poet.  The one thing I definitely didn't know was that he wrote ghost stories!  Therefore I definitely wanted to check this one out.

Surprise number one: Neve Campbell.  Naturally, my love of horror extends to the 'Scream' franchise, yet I've barely seen her in much else.  She's the 'star' here (the quote marks are because - technically - she's the main character, if not the most well-known (at the time of filming).  And she's decent enough.  As I don't know much about the source material, I don't know how faithful this adaptation is.  It's about an American family who move into a haunted mansion in jolly ol' England.  She's the teenage daughter who longs for her home in the U.S. and yet comes to find various reasons to stay.

Surprise number two: When the (main) ghost appears I could have sworn I'd seen him somewhere before.  The long dark hair he sported fooled me for a while until the voice clearly gave him away as none other that Patrick Stewart.  As well as not knowing who was in this film, I also had forgotten which year it was made.  I had a weird feeling that it was so low budget there was no way they could afford Patrick Stewart after he became a household name in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation.' I was wrong.  I'm guessing he was looking to be known for other things apart from captaining a starship and wanted to get his teeth into this.

Overall, it's not a bad - if completely predictable - film.  Like I say, I don't know how faithful the story (and especially the dialogue - which did seem a bit cheesy at times, even when delivered by decent actors like Stewart and Campbell).  Either way, it all feels a bit 'made-for-TV' and I'm not sure how much will stick with me, other than the novelty of seeing the random pair of stars together.

5/10