Urban Ghost Story

After a violent car crash, teenager Lizzie Fisher is clinically dead for 184 seconds before doctors bring her back, and she comes back convinced something hitched a ride with her. Nightmares and sudden visions make her certain the boundary she crossed left a residue, and small oddities at home — taps, bad smells, items shifted — soon escalate into more alarming activity. Friends and authorities mostly chalk it up to trauma or attention-seeking, while Lizzie clings to the idea that she should have died. As the disturbances grow and Kate, her mother, starts to experience unexplainable events, the family faces a frightening choice about how to respond to what may be a poltergeist.

Urban Ghost Story was released in 1998, directed by Geneviève Jolliffe from a concept by Chris Jones. This British horror-mystery features Heather Ann Foster as Lizzie, Jason Connery, Billy Boyd and Nicola Stapleton among the principal cast, and it leans on domestic settings to build suspense.

Critical reaction tended toward the negative and audience ratings stayed low, reflected in a 4.4/10 average from nine votes. Reviewers who responded positively pointed to its moody atmosphere and family conflict, while detractors cited uneven pacing and patchy performances, leaving the film polarizing for viewers of late 90s genre fare.

Though it never reached mainstream status, the picture maintains a modest afterlife with fans of 1990s British supernatural cinema. Its focus on poltergeist lore and the domestic effects of unexplained events gives it a particular niche, and the later careers of some cast members prompt occasional retrospective interest among horror aficionados.

Commercially, Urban Ghost Story had a limited release and didn't register notable box office success. It found most of its audience afterward via home video, television screenings and festival showings, where genre viewers and cult film circles were more likely to encounter and discuss its eerie, low-budget approach.