Tobias Forge’s gestures do much of the character work in Ghost: 2 Big to Rig. Performing as Papa V Perpetua, he has the costume and makeup of an arena-sized apparition, but the close-ups give his stage manner room to register at a smaller scale. His remarks and movements become individual pieces of performance, readable without the viewer having to understand the fictional succession of Ghost’s frontmen. The camera gives us enough access to appreciate the person playing this extravagant figure while keeping the figure intact.
The attention paid to costume helps the masked ensemble, too, particularly the bat wings worn by the Ghoulettes. These details give the eye something to follow beyond Papa. Yet access has its editorial limits. During “Square Hammer,” the film cuts away from a Ghoul’s stomping, abandoning a piece of stage choreography that deserved to remain in view. It is a small frustration, but a specific one: the concert has supplied the action, and the film has chosen to look elsewhere. Having several cameras cannot guarantee that the right performance stays on screen.
Directors Amir Chamdin and Jim Parsons recorded two Skeletour shows at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes, turning a tour that prohibited audience phones into a professionally selected record. Their film takes a different route from Rite Here Rite Now, which threaded fictional backstage material through the music and developed Papa Emeritus IV away from the stage. Here, the concert carries the dramatic weight. Papa V receives little additional fictional definition, but Forge’s performance has a clear function within the show. Requiring a subplot would confuse an absent feature with an unfinished one.
The Super 16mm photography gives that show a pleasingly weathered appearance. Grain remains visible across an enormous production, resisting the polished sharpness that might make every costume and lighting cue look like an item in a promotional catalogue.
There is a trade-off in crispness, especially when the image is enlarged, and the occasional retro filters add decoration to footage that already has a pronounced texture. The grain works best in the closer views, where faces and clothing acquire a tangible surface. It gives the images a past-tense quality without making this current incarnation of Ghost feel like an imitation of an earlier band.
Scale remains essential to the presentation. The crucifix-shaped lighting structure hangs above the performers, while the video-screen church windows appear to shatter and give way to a wasteland with small fires burning across the stage.
The transformation supplies a visual change that the film can use alongside changes in musical emphasis. It also establishes the geography of Ghost’s theatrical world without requiring an explanation of its mythology. Religious architecture, destruction and theatrical menace are readily legible; the pleasure lies in seeing how thoroughly the band has committed to making them occupy the room.
The set’s progression does a similar job for viewers with different levels of investment. Newer material, including “Peacefield” and “Lachryma,” establishes the touring incarnation being preserved. The later stretch beginning with “Year Zero,” with “Rats” among its familiar songs, gives returning listeners a succession of recognitions.
That shift helps the concert gather momentum without making the earlier material expendable. The film has to document the current show and accommodate the accumulated attachments of its audience. Its later selections increasingly allow those attachments to become visible, rather than leaving familiarity as something only the initiated can supply.
“Monstrance Clock” makes the strongest use of that possibility. The mass singing is accompanied by shots of visibly moved audience members, connecting the collective sound to particular people. These reactions have a purpose beyond certifying that everyone is having a wonderful evening. They show what the performance permits the crowd to do together, and the film’s attention shifts accordingly.
Forge remains the organizing presence, but the emotional activity is no longer confined to him. The satanic pageantry can coexist with an unusually tender account of participation. The encore stretch of “Mary on a Cross,” “Dance Macabre” and “Square Hammer” draws on this readiness: familiar songs arrive in a room whose investment the film has already made visible.
Its production interludes introduce a different kind of attention. The title comes from a crew member’s account of repeatedly assembling a setup whose scale seems to defy the practical task. Having already seen the overhead rig, we have a concrete reason to be interested. Brief passages of equipment handling and crew discussion bring ordinary work into contact with the finished spectacle. Keeping the masked performers out of this material preserves their stage presentation, while allowing the people who construct its physical setting to appear on their own terms.
Those passages are useful but thinly developed. A manager praising the team supplies appreciation where the material needs explanation; the crew receive a good reference, but the sequence gains little dramatic movement. Equipment being shifted establishes activity without telling us much about the choices that make the production repeatable. The title raises a practical question that the backstage scenes only partly address. Watching a worker move equipment, we can recognize the effort involved without learning which problem the task solves, how it fits the assembly, or what has to happen next.
Ghost: 2 Big to Rig premiered globally in cinemas and IMAX on August 26, 2026. Shot on 16mm film during the Swedish theatrical metal band’s sold-out shows in Mexico City, the immersive concert documentary captures the high-energy performances of their Skeletour World Tour.
Where to Watch Ghost: 2 Big to Rig (2026) Online
Full Credits
Title: Ghost: 2 Big to Rig
Distributor: Trafalgar Releasing
Release date: August 26, 2026
Rating: M
Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes (115 minutes)
Director: Tobias Forge, Amir Chamdin, Jim Parsons
Writers: Tobias Forge
Producers and Executive Producers: Tobias Forge
Cast: Tobias Forge, Per Eriksson, Randy Moore, Gabriela Gunčíková, Cosmo Sylvan, Hayden Scott, Laura Scarborough, Olivia Morreale
- Composer: Ghost
The Review
Ghost: 2 Big to Rig
Ghost: 2 Big to Rig finds its dramatic shape in the relationship between stage and crowd. Close-ups make Forge’s Papa V readable, while “Monstrance Clock” turns audience participation into the film’s emotional payoff. Textured photography and gathering musical momentum make this a rewarding record of the Skeletour. The edit occasionally abandons worthwhile stage action, and the backstage passages acknowledge the crew’s work without explaining enough of it. The concert holds together; the production documentary remains a promising sketch.
PROS
- Close-ups capture Forge’s theatrical character work.
- Expressive Super 16mm photography.
- Crowd participation gives “Monstrance Clock” emotional weight.
- Familiar songs build the later set’s momentum.
CONS
- Backstage material offers limited practical explanation.
- The “Square Hammer” edit misses distinctive Ghoul choreography.
