The Horror Show
Incident in a Ghostland
Pascal Laugier
Over a decade ago, us horror fans had the great pleasure of enjoying Martyrs, French writer and director Pascal Laugier’s outstanding horror opus of torture and gore, which is still quite popular amongst horror circles.
Ten years later, Laugier takes a stab at the genre and brings us Incident in a Ghostland. It is a tale of invasion horror steeped in drama, and - unfortunately - a bunch of outdated tropes.
The eerie story of Incident in a Ghostland follows a mother (Mylene Farmer) and her two daughters (Emilia Jones and Taylor Hickson), who inherit a house that is bound to become their grim prison. With news reports of brutal murders in the area, it doesn’t take long for the women to fall victim to a vicious attack right at their doorstep.
Jumping between past and present, fiction and reality, Laugier tackles the overmilked home invasion scenario with particular flair, however, one can’t simply ignore the obvious clichés that take a toll on the overall narrative.
Just when you thought a creaky old house, creepy antique dolls, stuffed animals and a dingy basement can still do the trick, in comes Incident in a Ghostland, failing to add something fresh to the genre.
While Laugier’s flick is a female-powered movie, the characters are portrayed as weak and of unsound mind. What you’ll probably miss as a viewer is compassion towards the personas, whereas the entire storyline yearns for a heartbeat.
Without a doubt Laugier has proved that he knows how to write horror. A few early creepy elements attest to his effort to surprise and engage the audiences, however he doesn’t manage to deliver enough scares in order to keep catching the viewer by surprise.
A fairly novel attempt to breathe some life into home invasion horror, Incident in a Ghostland will probably have a limited shelf-life, but this doesn’t mean it can’t be an okay time-killer.
Maria Kriva, HMS
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