An American Ghost Story - 2012
By The Bottom Reel Editorial Team ·
An American Ghost Story (2012): Micro-Budget Haunting with Big Ambition
Overview
An American Ghost Story is a 2012 American independent supernatural horror film written by and starring Stephen Twardokus, directed by Derek Cole. Shot on a micro-budget, it was released October 1, 2012 and on DVD August 20, 2013 by Breaking Glass Pictures. The tagline: “Some Things Are Better Left Alone.”
Plot
Paul Anderson Stephen Twardokus is an unemployed writer struggling with his future. He and his girlfriend Stella Liesel Kopp move into a house with a dark history – a family was murdered there and rumors of hauntings persist. Paul sees the house as his ticket out of his rut: he’ll write a book about the paranormal activity.
What starts as a fun project turns dangerous. Paul becomes obsessed with documenting the haunting, endangering himself, Stella, and his best friend Skip Jon Gale. The house’s history involves a horrible murder, and as Paul pushes for fame, the situation deteriorates and the ghostly activity escalates. The film asks: when you go looking for ghosts, what happens if you find them?
Cast & Crew
Paul Anderson – Stephen Twardokus also writer
Stella – Liesel Kopp
Skip – Jon Gale sometimes listed as John Gale
Sam – Cain Clifton
Sue – Wendy Haines
Ghost – Steven Cole
Director/Producer – Derek Cole
Producers – Jon Gale, Stephen Twardokus
Cinematography – Derek Cole
Social Impact & Reception
The film had a very limited footprint and received little mainstream attention. It played festivals and went straight to VOD/DVD.
Critics: Very few professional reviews exist. HorrorDNA noted: “I find this film shows a competence in visual cinematic structure but falls short of being compelling or suspenseful.” The reviewer added it’s “an accomplishment when someone has produced, written, shot and edited a film almost all by themselves” but couldn’t “give this film a full pass just because of a low budget.”
Blurb quotes on the poster from genre sites: Fangoria: “VERY WELL-CRAFTED,” AnythingHorror.com: “ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE GHOST STORIES I’VE SEEN,” HorrorNews.Net: “FAVORITE OF THE YEAR”.
Audience: Mixed-to-negative from horror fans. Amazon/IMDb user ratings are low. Plex lists an audience rating of 1.9/10. The film is often confused with David Lowery’s A Ghost Story (2017) in searches, but An American Ghost Story has virtually no cultural footprint beyond micro-budget horror circles.
Social impact: Minimal. It’s an example of 2010s micro-budget indie horror made for $10K and self-distributed. It didn’t spark discourse, spawn sequels, or influence the genre.
Budget vs. Box Office
Production Budget: $10,000
Theatrical Release: None reported. Direct-to-video/VOD.
Box Office Gross: $0 listed. Box Office Mojo has no entry for theatrical revenue.
Revenue Model: DVD/VOD sales and streaming. Amazon Prime lists it for rent/buy. No profit figures are public. With a $10K budget, it likely broke even on DVD/streaming for the filmmakers, but there’s no reported profit.
Ratings
IMDb: 4.3/10 listed as 4.3 from 131 ratings on Amazon
Rotten Tomatoes: No Tomatometer score – not enough critic reviews. No audience score shown. RT results are for the 2017 A Ghost Story, not this film.
Metacritic: No score.
TMDb: ∼3.2/10 based on user votes.
Rating: Not Rated some listings say 13+ Runtime: 90–95 minutes
Bottom line: An American Ghost Story is a $10K indie haunted-house film made by a tiny crew. Stephen Twardokus wrote, starred, and co-produced it. It’s competent for its budget but was criticized as “not compelling or suspenseful”. It remains obscure outside micro-budget horror fans. If you like ultra-low-budget ghost stories and don’t mind slow pacing, it’s an example of DIY filmmaking; if you want mainstream scares, reviews suggest looking elsewhere.