A free, modern and rebellious woman, Aliénor de Canterville was damned, doomed to haunt a castle in Britain after she committed suicide broken-hearted. Centuries later, while she continues to deter potential new owners by terrifying them with the help of her faithful servant Gwilherm, Aliénor meets her match: the Otis family, who have arrived from Paris determined to take possession of the castle. Only Virginia, 15, regrets the purchase. And to convince her parents to return to the big city, she joins forces with Aliénor, teaching her how scare people from the nineteenth century ...

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Yann Samuell certainly has a feeling for the visuals that made his first film so good (Love Me if You Dare, starring Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard as wild lovers) and was also evident in With Love…from the Age of reason with Sophie Marceau and War of the Buttons. Except that his desire to add color, animate, and fill the frame has gradually shifted to cheap esthetics and the motivation to pack the house. And so, after having dabbled in The Great Ghost Rescue, an unnoticed English movie, Samuell adapts the classic story by Oscar Wilde with some innovative changes that are nevertheless unconvincing. Despite the good efforts of Audrey Fleurot who ends up struggling, this version of The Canterville Ghost is bland, ugly and distressingly heavy, as the gags and special effects accumulate without every being funny.