Tyler Oliver's directorial debut is a tough horror movie to talk about without spoiling too much. That's not to imply Forget Me Not has a maddening, last-minute twist at the end, a common fallback for most independent productions vying for the spotlight on the festival circuit, but there is a gradual turning point in the script in which the game changes unexpectedly, shifting the film's overall mood and direction with enough jolt that the surprise in watching it unfold is half the fun. It opens as a rather familiar story about a group of attractive high school kids partying it up on their first post-graduation weekend, when out of nowhere an unidentified blur of shadows begins to throw bloody wrenches into their rendezvous plans one by one.

Yet while the opener may seem like countless other teen-centric horror movies, particularly since the blurring shadow in question initially looks a little too much like the vengeful ghost from The Grudge, the film slowly tips its hand, revealing a refreshing premise unlike any recent, teen-centric offerings I can think of. There's a question to be asked as to whether or not being simply different is enough to land the film any great distance ahead of its peers, but the effort shown in trying to be a cerebral blend of horrors that do warrant a thorough dissection after the credits roll does more than enough to justify keeping Forget Me Not on your radar.

Besides having a script that's not merely content with running through predictable paces, Forget Me Not also boasts an attribute I wish one would find in more horror flicks featuring a cast barely old enough to drive. Unlike, say, Prom Night '09 (my go-to example of everything wrong with peddling to a certain demographic), the teens in this movie act like actual, immature high schoolers from the real world, not from an episode of MTV's "My Super Sweet 16". They smoke pot and drink beer and have sex and when someone throws them into spinning saw blades, they gush the red like its going out of style. Considering they're still teenagers, they may not be the most intensely interesting group of characters one could hope for, but it's gratifying to see a director that captures youth like the wannabe adults they are, allowing them to get ripped and then ripped open regardless of their age.

More impressive than Forget Me Not's spirit of "all is fair in love and war" are its, well, spirits. Oliver spends a good deal of time throughout the film walking a shadow or two in front of the camera while a character isn't paying attention, but that old-hat trick is forgivable considering the director also has zero apprehension about then walking his beasties right into the sunlight for all to see. The make-up design for its haunters is genuinely creepy, even when its being digitally augmented by a distended jaw line or rows of inhumanly sharp teeth. And if you're a fan of creatures who move and shake their bodies like their bones don't anatomically align, then you'll be happy to know Forget Me Not is a showcase of twisting appendages and elongated ligaments.

The performances are all admirable for the actors' fledgling careers, though only Carly Shroeder is given any emotional core to work with. She once again shows the acting chops she displayed at age 14 in Mean Creek, though unfortunately the material here isn't quite as dynamic as it was in Jacob Aaron Estes' thriller about a group of kids who accidentally kill someone on a camping trip. Then again, Mean Creek doesn't have killer ghosts in it either, so it's unfair to compare the two directly, however, as with Estes' film, Oliver's film has a slightly off-kilter take on messing with its teenagers heads that is riskier than most. That alone renders Forget Me Not a commendable entry; the fact that it also has a wicked approach to its ghosts and no fear of offing its characters in grizzly ways, makes this a satisfying debut for the first-time director.