A bridge builder begins the hunt for two lions that start attacking the local construction workers : I may be in the minority with this one but I really enjoy revisiting Stephen Hopkins THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS : the film has a familiar tone to Spielberg’s Jaws accept that the monster is the King of the Jungle and there are two of them killing for pleasure, stalking their prey and wreaking havok to a small African region known as Tsavo : Hopkins movie is based around the the Tsavo Man-Eaters the true story of those Lions dating back to 1898 : not only did I find the film’s story compelling, the Jaws like hunt and then to be hunted arc but I also loved the chemistry between Michael Douglas’s grizzled hunter Remington and Val Kilmer‘s Patterson both seemed to click and feed off each other’s energy & undoubted passion for Hopkins movie (ignore the Razzie nomination, for me it’s a top 5 Kilmer performance for sure) : one of my favorite moments in the movie is when Patterson runs to meet his wife who has arrived at the train station in Tsavo with their new born child, it’s a dream sequence, you see the Lion come out of the long grass to the side of the station savaging both mum & child (by the way the mum is played by a very young Emily Mortimer) it’s a really good scene : the film was shot by Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) around the Songimvelo Game Reserve in South Africa and adds so much to the film’s spectacle, the authenticity of the regions beauty & danger is an overwhelming plus point, also worth mentioning that Bruce Stambler won an Academy Award for Sound Editing : If like me you enjoy revisiting the gems of yester-year then give The Ghost and the Darkness another watch, for me it’s still holds up well as a well acted, thrilling scare ride that will have your nerves a jangling from start to finish ★★★★½