Ghostland (2018)

Directed by: Pascal Laugier | 91 minutes | horror | Actors: Crystal Reed, Mylène Farmer, Anastasia Phillips, Emilia Jones, Taylor Hickson, Kevin Power, Rob Archer, Mariam Bernstein, Alicia Johnston, Ernesto Griffith, Adam Hurtig, Denis Cozzi, Sharon Bajer, Tony Braga, Paul Titley, Gordon Tanner, Erik Athavale, Paolo Bryant, Terry Ray, Suzanne Pringle, Malick Laugier

Remote haunted house? check. An interior full of scary dolls? check. People who leave the doors open in the middle of the night while a serial killer is active in the area? check. In terms of horror clichés, ‘Ghostland’ certainly does the trick. At the moments the film plays with the dividing line between fantasy and reality too. But when the makers go further and further in the torture of the female protagonists, the film evokes a too sour aftertaste.

A mother (Mylène Farmer) and her two teenage daughters Beth (Emilia Jones) and Vera (Taylor Hickson) are on their way to her late aunt’s house. Beth is a passionate aspiring horror writer, while Vera is mostly in her early teens. The moment they enter the house disaster strikes almost immediately, when two creeps enter the house and try to assault the daughters. It would be a shame to reveal the story further, because that would take away some of the tension.

‘Ghostland’ largely stays true to the laws of the horror genre, but still manages to surprise at times. The film is nice at moments when the fantasy world of the writer and the (hard) reality start to get mixed up. When it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems, the film manages to demand just a little more from the viewer than just causing as many frightening moments as possible.

Still, the sometimes ingenious script cannot prevent ‘Ghostland’ from being very abrasive at times. The film almost succumbs to its own melancholy. Now that is usually not a big problem with horror films, but in ‘Ghostland’ it hurts when this happens in combination with a heavily loaded theme such as sexual abuse. The film aims to be both a psychological drama and a full-blooded horror, so watching the film certainly evokes a strong uneasy feeling in the second half.

Horror often functions as a form of escapism, as a world in which the film viewer can escape for a while. However, ‘Ghostland’ can hardly be considered escapism. In a certain sense ‘Ghostland’ is even eerily realistic, but this is hindered by obligatory scares and the inevitable presence of creepy dolls. If the makers had dared to make choices in the tone of the film, the film might have turned out better than it is now. In addition, the film lacks the necessary depth and it is never exactly clear what message the makers want to convey with ‘Ghostland’. It seems as if the makers want to claim that fantasy is necessary to escape from harsh reality, but that reality in ‘Ghostland’ mainly boils down to uncomfortable, horrific torture porn.

Ghostland is certainly not a bad movie. In the story, the well-known clichés are cleverly interspersed with strong psychological issues. The fact that the film gives the viewer a big punch in the stomach doesn’t even have to be a problem, were it not for the fact that the film wants to deal with a theme that is too heavily loaded in a genre that is difficult to do so. It ensures that ‘Ghostland’ does not look good at all and is certainly not a horror film that you can enjoy carefree. It is above all a pretty nasty film, in which the ambivalent attitude of the makers ultimately ensures that the film manages to stick, but in the wrong way. A horrible movie in the wrong sense of the word.