Review: Incident in a Ghostland

Mylene Farmer inherits her late aunt’s rural estate and takes her two daughters there. The horrors they experience change their lives forever. It’s a nightmare they may never quite shake.

One of those films that you end up begrudgingly awarding a positive score, even though it does things that piss you off and prevent it from being the even better film it could’ve been. This 2018 horror pic from writer-director Pascal Laugier suffers from annoying and unnecessary Lovecraft name-dropping and a subpar performance by Mylene Farmer, apparently better known as a singer than actress. Laugier is the filmmaker behind the well-regarded but seriously unrelenting “Martyrs”. This one’s not nearly as gruelling, which is merely a statement, not a criticism/praise. It’s still got a lot more going for it than I expected going in (having not recognised Laugier’s name), and I’m not just talking about the unexpected twist midway through. It sure is a doozy though, I didn’t pick it at all and in its own way it’s pretty brutal. I also really liked the genuinely unsettling performance by Rob Archer as the sinister Fat Man. In fact, the villains make for sickly compelling viewing in the first half, much like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. I also liked the low-level lighting and building atmosphere and dread in the first half. It’s in this half that the film offers up some really interesting themes about childhood trauma’s lasting effects on people, as it seems to have affected the three central characters differently. The second half has its charms too, but it becomes quite a different horror film. Instead of being concerned with childhood trauma, it’s more a mixture of “TCM”, “Martyrs” and “Haute Tension”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still interesting and the first half still has its schlock horror moments, but it didn’t end up being the film it starts off suggesting it will be, so it might take a bit of adjusting for the viewer. Overall though it’s quite a creepy, sad, and twisted film and I rather enjoyed it.

On the downside, there’s a thoroughly regrettable cameo by an unconvincingly made-up Paul Titley as horror author H.P. Lovecraft. It should’ve been nixed at the second draft stage. It made me mad, because aside from that and Farmer, I was really on board with this one.

Although not nearly as overtly violent as “Martyrs”, this horror pic from the same filmmaker is in its own way still a very cruel and mean film. It isn’t without flaw, and could’ve been so much better, but overall this is worthy of a recommendation.

Rating: B-