Horror Movie Weekly Ep. 005: Incident in a Ghostland (2018)

Good afternoon all,

This was a good pick by Lady Phantom. I had not seen this film, but it was on my list to see. I have not seen Martyrs either, though I have tried in the past. It is out of print right now. I do know that the French Extreme includes films like High Tension and Inside and Martyrs as prime examples. I have to be honest in that the Home Invasion sub-genre is one of my least favorite in horror. Everyone had reviewed Incident in a Ghostland very positively, so I was excited that this episode presented the opportunity to see it. I streamed it on Shudder.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It was well-made and you can tell the director took meticulous care in putting this film together. Performances were mostly strong. I agree that this movie has a good score and dramatic sound design. The visual aesthetic wasn’t that appealing to me, but I gather that was intentional. Not much gore in the film, but the few scenes we get are effective. My take on Bill’s question? This film was not too extreme. It didn’t show too much. Yes, we see the aftermath of injuries and there is some on-screen violence against the girls, but it is restrained in it’s depiction. They could have shown much more and made it worse. I’m saying I agree with the decision to be restrained here.

My nit picks are on character and story. First of all, a mother travelling with two young daughters. There was a famous case in the eighties in Florida concerning a mother travelling on vacation with her two young daughters. They were accosted and taken on a boat, where they were raped, killed and tossed into the sea. You really have to be ignorant to do this without being armed and without any men for defense and protection. Women need to be protected. In this film, they were targeted because of their vulnerability. All of them should have been practicing surveillance in every aspect of their trip. When moving boxes into the house, you always have someone outside keeping watch.

Let’s put aside their carefree ignorance of potential threats. Jay alluded to the concept of mental blocking. Whereby, a victim so traumatized by reality, that their brain will shut off so they can no longer experience the trauma. They basically go into a vegetative state. In this film, one of our protagonists is experiencing such a scenario. She actually projects herself into the future where she has this complete fictional reality as an adult. There is no way this would happen in real life. It is a contrivance for the benefit of the story, but it has no basis in reality.

My other beef is in the final act. In the final 20 minutes, we see that movie is going to wrap up and we see an end in sight. But then, they reintroduce one of the antagonists in a deadly confrontation that sees the film leading into another ending. There is no way this happens in real life. You have a complete amateur taking on professionals and there is no way what happens in the film, actually happens. Also, we should never see that character again, once that final 20 minutes commences. It’s not going to happen. In the same sequence, this character makes THE fatal mistake, in fact make that two mistakes. Right then, you know they are done, period. Of course, the actual ending proves this to be the case.

I agree with Lady Phantom. Leave all the PC crap out of it. Is the left concerned about how Christians are portrayed in film, or if that offends them? Absolutely not. Jay, if you saw the Utah Cabin Murders, you know how disgusting they portrayed Christians in that film. The fact that you have two insane criminals who are child killing rapists and one of them is a transvestite doesn’t bother me at all. If anything, it’s warning against the perversity of the left. Also, what is the relationship between the two male criminals? Their paring doesn’t make too much sense.

Incident in a Ghostland is a good horror film with a few flaws. I’d rate this a 7.5/10 and a high priority rental. I have never even heard of the Void from 2016. It looks promising, like an HP Lovecraft type of flick. Looking forward to seeing another movie I haven’t seen.

Thanks for another entertaining episode everyone!