Tamera Mowry-Housley stars as Gethsemane Brown, the protagonist of Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Key To The Castle, the third film in the Hallmark Channel adaptation of the mystery novel series written by author Alexia Gordon. While Mowry-Housley may be the marquis name on the poster here, the film, about a woman and a ghost who team up to solve the murder of a reality TV show host, is a buddy mystery and the reason it works as well as it does is because of her chemistry with co-star Risteárd Cooper, who plays the ghost that helps her investigation. While the mystery, and the Irish backdrop, are appealing, it’s the relationship between the two leads that is full of wit and warmth and is a true pleasure to watch.
The Gist: In the Haunted Harmony Mysteries, Mowry-Housley plays Gethsemane Brown, a music teacher living in Ireland who has the ability to see ghosts. Eamon (Cooper), who was a composer when he was alive, is Gethsemane’s dear spectral friend that only she can see, and he joins her one day when she’s invited to the set of a reality TV shoot at a local castle for a series hosted by ghost hunters Ciara (Sarah Gallagher) and Kent (Luke Griffin), a formerly married couple who now just work together. As Kent gives Gethsemane a tour of the castle, someone screams; Kent’s lifeless body is found on the set and it turns out that Gethsemane has been speaking to Kent’s ghost the whole time. (As on-screen murder reveals go it’s actually very clever.)
So now that there are two ghosts Gethsemane can see, Eamon and Kent, and because no one else can see them, they make the perfect investigative partners. As Gethsemane looks for hard evidence inside the castle and collaborates with Ciara (who is a suspect herself, along with everyone else on the show’s crew) to search for Kent’s killer, Eamon is able to apparate to handy locations like police interrogation rooms and some of the suspects’ homes and is able to feed Gethsemane whatever information he gleans there.
While Gethsemane and Eamon investigate, she’s also got a little bit of a romance brewing with the lead detective on the case, Inspector O’Reilly (Adam Fergus). I hate to say it, but while this is a cute development, this relationship is far less intriguing and captivating than the friendship Gethsemane has with Eamon. Still, it moves the story to a new place and offers some hope for more character development and additional films in this fun franchise.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s been a minute since I’ve thought of the old show Ghost Whisperer, the Jennifer Love Hewitt series about a woman who can see ghosts and helps them cross over by resolving their earthly problems. This is essentially the premise of this movie, with some of the non-scary elements of The Sixth Sense thrown in.
Performance Worth Watching: Risteárd Cooper is wonderful as Eamon, playing the character as a real person rather than trying to give him any sort of ghostly, ethereal qualities. He gets all the best dialogue, especially when he offers his insights on what it’s like in the afterlife. It’s a little silly but also strangely comforting hearing him talk about who he’s hanging out with in heaven.
Sex And Skin: None.
Our Take: Maybe it’s the idyllic Irish locale, maybe it’s the unlikely but delightful relationship between human Gethsemane and ghost Eamon, or maybe it’s the clever conceit of a ghost helping to solve another ghost’s murder, but Key To The Castle is a well-written mystery that’s utterly satisfying to watch. Mowry-Housley’s work on Hallmark is often hit or miss for me. The veteran actress is a real talent, but far too often I have found the material she’s given is two-dimensional and full of tropes — how many single moms finding love at Christmas can one woman play? — that even she can’t really improve them. But in this franchise, she has found her perfect partner, and it’s not even a romantic one. The rapport between Gethsemane and Eamon is a genuine friendship and allows for both actors to shine.
While there are certain elements of the movie that are frustrating — the bizarrely low-budget special effects during a scene where the castle appears smoky, and the incredibly over-explained ending when the killer is revealed — all is forgiven because the rest of the movie works so well.
Our Call: Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Key To The Castle is another winning installment of what has proven to be a reliably strong mystery series on the Hallmark Channel. STREAM IT!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.