# A Ghost Story
**A Ghost Story** is a 2017 American supernatural drama film written and directed by David Lowery, in which a recently deceased man ([Casey Affleck](https://www.edgepedia.org/casey-affleck)), shrouded in a white bedsheet, returns to the suburban Texas home he shared with his wife ([Rooney Mara](https://www.edgepedia.org/rooney-mara)) and, unstuck in time, watches passively as the life he knew slips away[1](https://a24films.com/films/a-ghost-story). Distributed by A24, it opened in limited US theaters on July 7, 2017[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Written and directed by | David Lowery, his fourth feature[1](https://a24films.com/films/a-ghost-story) • [3](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/media/publicwebassets/GhostStoryPressKit_%7B76469dde-ff7c-4712-8f26-828f22d264ab%7D.pdf) |
| Starring | Casey Affleck as C, Rooney Mara as M; the characters are identified only by initials[1](https://a24films.com/films/a-ghost-story) • [4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-ghost-story-2017) |
| Release | Limited US theatrical release July 7, 2017, distributed by A24; premiered at Sundance 2017 in the festival's Next section[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story) • [5](https://www.thewrap.com/a24-buys-casey-affleck-ghost-story-sundance/) |
| Budget | About $150,000, partly covered by Lowery's Disney pay cheque from Pete's Dragon[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/09/a-ghost-story-interview-david-lowery-casey-affleck-rooney-mara-pie) |
| Runtime | Listings vary: A24 gives 1h 32m, Rotten Tomatoes 1h 30m, the press kit 93 minutes, and the Irish Film Institute 87 minutes[1](https://a24films.com/films/a-ghost-story) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story) • [3](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/media/publicwebassets/GhostStoryPressKit_%7B76469dde-ff7c-4712-8f26-828f22d264ab%7D.pdf) • [7](https://www.ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/IFI_August-2017_Programme_FlipLeaf.pdf) |
| Reception | 91% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 287 reviews; Metascore of 84 from 46 critics, labeled "universal acclaim"[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story) • [8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/a-ghost-story/) |
| Box office | $1.6 million gross in the United States[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The film opens in a faded suburban ranch house in Texas, where a young couple identified only as C and M share a quietly restless life. C, a musician, wants to stay close to home, while M dreams of moving elsewhere. C is killed in a car accident at the end of their driveway; after M identifies his body at the morgue, the sheet covering the corpse rises and C walks home as a silent, white-sheeted ghost with black eyeholes[3](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/media/publicwebassets/GhostStoryPressKit_%7B76469dde-ff7c-4712-8f26-828f22d264ab%7D.pdf) • [9](https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/sundance-2017-a-ghost-story).
**Grief in real time.** The film's most discussed scene shows M, left alone in the house, eating nearly an entire pie left by a well-meaning realtor as she grapples with her grief. The scene runs close to five minutes of uninterrupted time, the camera immobile on M seated on the floor while C watches silently in the background, ending when she rushes to the bathroom to vomit[10](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/39460/30753). [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) described it as a single four-minute take[11](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/24/david-lowerys-haunting-cinema).
After M seals a note from her childhood inside a wall and leaves, C remains bound to the house across decades and eras. New residents come and go, including a young Hispanic family and a houseful of young partygoers, one of whom, credited as the Prognosticator ([Will Oldham](https://www.edgepedia.org/will-oldham)), delivers a several-minute monologue about art, memory, and humanity's doomed attempts to leave traces that last[3](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/media/publicwebassets/GhostStoryPressKit_%7B76469dde-ff7c-4712-8f26-828f22d264ab%7D.pdf) • [4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-ghost-story-2017). The film's tagline is "it's all about time"[10](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/39460/30753).
## Production
**A quick, secret shoot.** Lowery began preparing the film in May 2016, expanding a ten-page outline into a sparse shooting script written in a couple of days; his own account puts the script at about 30 pages, while the press kit describes a 40-page document[3](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/media/publicwebassets/GhostStoryPressKit_%7B76469dde-ff7c-4712-8f26-828f22d264ab%7D.pdf) • [12](https://poptheology.com/qa-with-a-ghost-story-director-david-lowery/). He finished post-production on Pete's Dragon, his Disney remake, and began shooting A Ghost Story two days later, in June 2016, using his Disney pay cheque to partially cover the $150,000 budget, with friends contributing the rest[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/09/a-ghost-story-interview-david-lowery-casey-affleck-rooney-mara-pie). The shoot was kept secret in case the concept did not work; Lowery later said he was "so riddled with self-doubt I probably aged five years"[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/09/a-ghost-story-interview-david-lowery-casey-affleck-rooney-mara-pie).
The film is presented in the 1.33:1 Academy ratio with rounded frame edges, giving the domestic scenes the feel of a home movie[7](https://www.ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/IFI_August-2017_Programme_FlipLeaf.pdf) • [10](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/39460/30753). Much of the ghost's footage was shot at a slightly increased frame rate of 33 frames per second rather than 24, which slows the figure's movements perceptibly[13](https://decentfilms.com/reviews/ghoststory). Because the sheet could hide anyone, the art director stepped in for Affleck during reshoots, and Lowery himself played the floral-sheeted "grandma ghost" who lives next door[11](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/24/david-lowerys-haunting-cinema). The score is by Daniel Hart and the cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo; Lowery edited the film himself[14](https://time.com/4856221/a-ghost-story-review/) • [15](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/we-do-what-we-can-to-endure-on-memory-and-time-in-david-lowerys-films).
## Release and reception
Two weeks before the [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival) in January 2017, A24 acquired worldwide distribution rights; the film premiered later that month in the festival's Next section[5](https://www.thewrap.com/a24-buys-casey-affleck-ghost-story-sundance/). It received mostly very positive notices during festival screenings, though some critics found it too slow or too precious[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-ghost-story-2017).
**Critical standing.** The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calls the film "an inventive, artful, and ultimately poignant exploration of love and loss," with a 91% Tomatometer from 287 reviews and a 67% audience score[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story). Metacritic assigned a score of 84 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "universal acclaim," against a user score of 7.0[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/a-ghost-story/). Praise clustered around the sustained shots, the handling of time in the editing, and the expressiveness of the sheet; reservations centered on the patience the long takes demand and the minimal drama[16](https://film.one/film/a-ghost-story/reviews). The film grossed $1.6 million in the United States[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story).
## Themes and interpretation
Lowery has said the film grew from personal ruminations about leaving Texas and attachment to a house, combined with an existential crisis triggered by a [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize)-winning New Yorker article by Kathryn Schulz about an earthquake expected to strike the [Pacific Northwest](https://www.edgepedia.org/pacific-northwest); "The film became my way of dealing with those issues," he told The Guardian[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/09/a-ghost-story-interview-david-lowery-casey-affleck-rooney-mara-pie). He has also described houses as haunted by history: "there is no doubt that events have transpired in every space we occupy, especially our homes"[3](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/media/publicwebassets/GhostStoryPressKit_%7B76469dde-ff7c-4712-8f26-828f22d264ab%7D.pdf).
Scholarly readings have emphasized the ghost as a time traveler. One analysis argues that separation from life gives C a fluid experience of earthly time: as his human ties fall away, cuts and ellipses enter the film's language, and after falling from a skyscraper built on his homesite he falls backward through time to a pioneer family settling the land, revealing that he has haunted the space across all of it, including his own living self[10](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/39460/30753). RogerEbert.com's reviewer placed the film in several genres at once: a love story, a science fiction-inflected story about time travel and time loops, and a story about loneliness, denial, and the anxiousness of contemplating the end of consciousness[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-ghost-story-2017).
## References
1. [A Ghost Story, A24](https://a24films.com/films/a-ghost-story)
2. [A Ghost Story, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_ghost_story)
3. [A Ghost Story press kit, Mongrel Media](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/media/publicwebassets/GhostStoryPressKit_%7B76469dde-ff7c-4712-8f26-828f22d264ab%7D.pdf)
4. [A Ghost Story movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-ghost-story-2017)
5. [Casey Affleck's 'A Ghost Story' Picked Up By A24, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/a24-buys-casey-affleck-ghost-story-sundance/)
6. [David Lowery on why he made A Ghost Story, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/09/a-ghost-story-interview-david-lowery-casey-affleck-rooney-mara-pie)
7. [A Ghost Story, Irish Film Institute programme](https://www.ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/IFI_August-2017_Programme_FlipLeaf.pdf)
8. [A Ghost Story Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/a-ghost-story/)
9. [Sundance 2017: "A Ghost Story", RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/sundance-2017-a-ghost-story)
10. [The Ghostly Time Traveller in A Ghost Story, Camera Stylo (University of Toronto)](https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/camerastylo/article/download/39460/30753)
11. [David Lowery's Haunting Cinema, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/24/david-lowerys-haunting-cinema)
12. [Q&A with A Ghost Story director David Lowery, Pop Theology](https://poptheology.com/qa-with-a-ghost-story-director-david-lowery/)
13. [A Ghost Story (2017), Decent Films](https://decentfilms.com/reviews/ghoststory)
14. [A Ghost Story Chills and Makes You Wonder, TIME](https://time.com/4856221/a-ghost-story-review/)
15. [We Do What We Can to Endure: On Memory and Time in David Lowery's Films, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/we-do-what-we-can-to-endure-on-memory-and-time-in-david-lowerys-films)
16. [A Ghost Story (2017) critics' reviews, Fi1m](https://film.one/film/a-ghost-story/reviews)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2017 and 2018*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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