Review: ‘Incident in a Ghostland’ is a maniacal, emotional funhouse

Lovecraftian horror is largely characterized through the fearful lens of the unknown. It’s the suffocation of isolation as the sky opens wide to reveal a boundless cosmos that holds all of humanity’s secrets and the one true destiny. Often referenced as “cosmic horror,” the film and literature sub-genre is most closely linked to the work of H.P. Lovecraft and frequently wrestles with themes of psychological terror, mental decay and gutting hopelessness. Lovecraft is certainly a pioneer of visceral, vulnerable and bizarre storytelling, and yet he would never get proper credit until well after his death in 1937. Writer and director Pascal Laugier firmly situates his first film in six years, the violently relentless, disturbing and altogether jarring Incident in a Ghostland, around such thematic beats in what has quickly become one of the most controversial features of the past year.

Originally released last summer, the 90-minute murderous confection has gone severely under-viewed and finally finds its home this week on streaming. A framework drawing parallels to Laugier’s 2008 film Martyrs, often associated with New French Extremity (in essence, the total deconstruction of humanity with nauseating violence and grotesque mutilation), Ghostland harbors itself as offering a substantive, emotionally-grueling dissection of trauma. Danny Nowak’s cinematography decorates the sequences against a distorted and fantastical mood board that pairs nicely with various thread lines ⏤ inevitably going for a knockout punch mid-way through the runtime. Laugier has assembled such a maddeningly grim stylized piece that the conversations are bound to be unapologetically polarizing. There’s no middle ground.

Mylène Farmer (A Good Year) plays the even-keeled, well-intentioned and loving matriarch, who inherits a secluded estate on the outskirts of town. She soon becomes a mere pawn in the fateful cat-and-mouse game, and in one particularly heart-throbbing sequence, she offers a savage and mesmeric performance. She is flanked by Crystal Reed (Swamp Thing, Gotham, Teen Wolf) and Anastasia Phillips (Reign, Lucky 7, Skins) as adult iterations of sisters Beth and Vera, respectively, and each must contend with Texas Chainsaw Massacre-imprinted intruders whose motive-less mayhem wreaks bloody and devastating havoc. Dancing between time and place, the cast is rounded out with Emilia Jones (Locke & Key, Utopia) as Young Beth and Taylor Hickson (Motherland: Fort Salem, Deadly Class) as Young Vera, and they, too, dig their nails, quite literally, into such harrowing territory that the viewer begins to question their own morals in acting as voyeurs to such maniacal mechanics.

The characterization of the nameless villains, referenced here as embodiments of The Witch and the Ogre as mythological figures in popular culture, have drawn ire as being transphobic. However, the lines are left immensely blurred, vague even, and the scales never tip in either direction; no reference is ever explicitly sketched as to the woman’s gender identity. While many also cite such screenwriting as completely devoid of craft or color, the film is far more mysterious, and quite frankly, disturbing with two seemingly illogical and bloodthirsty monsters tearing through our protagonists.

A twisty plot, sometimes ratcheting up to Tourist Trap absurdity, never seems as far-fetched to derail the story entirely. In fact, such complexities in both the human mind ⏤ self-inflicted shackles that must be broken in order to propel our heroines further into redemption ⏤ and the cold-blooded nature of the world richen the experience all the more. But make no mistake, Ghostland is a shockingly emotional story of two sisters who must combat their own psychotic breaks and wade through present reality to find what it means to survive and really live.

Incident in a Ghostland drops on Shudder this Thursday (August 15).

Follow B-Sides & Badlands on our socials: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram