"What ‘Ghostlight’ (2024) Teaches Screenwriters About Revealing Backstory
Official trailer for “Ghostlight” (2024).
The following contains some spoilers for “Ghostlight”.
A challenge that often faces writers is the question of when to reveal the backstory of our characters. Holding back the right amount of information can create suspense; holding back too much can leave the audience alienated. Suppose Shakespeare had not immediately established the feud between the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet. We would wonder why there’s so much tension in Verona.
Romeo and Juliet plays a key role in Ghostlight, a poignant drama that premiered at Sundance and was named one of the top 10 independent films of 2024 by the National Board of Review. Screenwriter and co-director Kelly O’Sullivan delivers a script that offers a terrific lesson in how to reveal backstory without getting bogged down in exposition.
Dan Mueller (played by Keith Kupferer) is a construction worker struggling with grief, something affecting his entire family. Though this is established in the first few scenes, O'Sullivan delays giving us all the details. Instead, she uses three effective techniques to maintain suspense, allowing the moments of revelation to offer the strongest dramatic punch.
ESTABLISHING URGENT STAKES: LAYING THE FOUNDATION IN ACT ONE
In its first scenes, Ghostlight establishes both the family's grief and the urgency behind their need to deal with it. Distracted at work, Dan is almost struck by a car. His daughter, Daisy (Kupferer's real-life daughter, Katherine Mallen Kupferer), is nearly expelled for pushing a teacher. Repressing his emotions, Dan has flashes of violent anger that frighten those around him. Sharon Mueller (Tara Mallen) puts on a brave face, but is unable to connect to Dan when she tries to be intimate.
O'Sullivan slowly reveals crucial tidbits of information, stoking our curiosity. A teacher notes that "I know you have a lot on your plate". Sharon mentions a lawsuit and an upcoming meeting with the lawyer. We may suspect a tragedy, but nothing has been explicitly said.
While there's intrigue, it doesn't come at the expense of the immediate dramatic stakes. We still have enough information to appreciate the tension in the family and the problems the characters need to confront. Even before we know the backstory, the foundation has been laid, and the crisis is clear: this is a family that needs to confront its issues before they are torn apart.
BUILDING SUSPENSE: ORGANIC REVELATIONS IN ACT TWO
As the story proceeds, O'Sullivan builds tension in the external action. Dan secretly joins a community theatre troupe that is staging Romeo and Juliet. He is suspended from his job after his anger leads him to lash out at someone. When he lies to his family about what’s happening, his daughter suspects Dan is having an affair. Meanwhile, the family continues to struggle with Daisy's outbursts as Dan and Sharon remain divided over the lawsuit.
During this, more details about the past are revealed. At a meeting with the lawyer, we learn that Dan's son, Brian, has died, and the family has filed a wrongful death suit against Christine, Brian's girlfriend. We get some hints as to what happened when Dan insists his theatre troupe should change the ending to Romeo and Juliet. For Dan, the sight of two teenagers killing themselves hits a little too close to home.
As the backstory unfolds, information is revealed organically, either through circumstance (they're meeting with the lawyer, so it's natural they will discuss what happened) or dramatic necessity (when Dan yells at his theatre troupe, he has to explain why).
Organic revelation is the key to revealing exposition because it provides information while still propelling the plot. In Hamlet, Shakespeare could have just had Horatio tell us how King Hamlet died. Instead, the story comes out only when the ghost appears. The ghost reports on his death because he has an urgent reason for doing so: he wants to send his son on the road to revenge.
THE IMPACT OF THE TWIST: EMOTIONAL FALLOUT IN ACT THREE
Ghostlight continues to reveal information as the story builds to the deposition in which Dan must confront Christine. By this point, all the details have been revealed - let's just say that there continues to be reasons that Romeo and Juliet affects Dan the way it does. With the backstory out of the way, the story can focus completely on the emotional fallout.
The third act is often when screenwriters will insert a twist to surprise the audience. While it's always good to subvert expectations, the twist is never as important as how our protagonist reacts to it. There needs to be time for our protagonist to react to what they’ve learned. In The Sixth Sense, the famed twist is not as important as what comes after it. Having discovered the truth about himself, Cole can now move on.
In Ghostlight, confronting Christine at the deposition is only part of Dan's arc. Having taken on the role of Romeo, he now has to inhabit an emotional life similar to his son's. By understanding how to play Romeo, he gains a deeper understanding of Brian, allowing him to finally take an important step in moving on.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ghostlight - along with Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Sixth Sense - provides a lesson for the screenwriter unsure how to handle exposition. In Act One, the audience is given context for the urgent stakes (the Foundation). Next, supsense is built as information is conveyed naturally (Organic Revelation). Finally, the script explores the aftermath, allowing us to see how our protagonist completes their personal arc (Emotional Fallout).
Ghostlight is available to stream on Kanopy, Disney+, and other sensible websites.