French director Pascal Laugier returns with another torture-horror film
After hitting french and american theaters in March, Incident in a Ghostland by Pascal Laugier debuts in Italy on December 6. The french director, who upset the audience in 2008 with Martyrs, returns with a viewer-friendly torture film about two sisters. Incident in a Ghostland stars actresses Crystal Reed, Anastasia Phillips, Emilia Jones, Taylor Hickson and Mylène Farmer in the main roles.
The plot: after the death of her aunt, Pauline and her daughters, Beth and Vera, decide to move to her old house. A disturbing candy truck follows the women on the way to their new home and, as they start getting comfortable, they are attacked by two ruthless assassins. Pauline must fight to protect her daughters, but this terrible event will have a different impact on the future of the sisters: while Beth becomes a famous author of horror books, Vera remains stuck in a destructive paranoia. Sixteen years later, the family gathers again in the same house that Vera and Pauline never left and a terrible truth will be unveiled.
Laugier’s new film has a lower impact compared to Martyrs, but Incident in a Ghostland follows the same track, going back to the torture terrain: the film is mostly set in a disturbing doll-filled house, but the toys are only an excuse to tell another story: the French director is more interested in portraying two sisters with very different personalities who share the fear and the will to fight a common enemy.
The temporal structure that really adds some mystery to the film, but the few jump scares are quickly replaced by scenes of violent submission: Laugier has been highly criticized (and called a misogynist) for showing such cruelty involving two young girls. The truth is that there is nothing extreme in Incident in a Ghostland, simply you don’t have to expect the supernatural elements of the horror tradition, because the film is focused on a very tangible fear: the fear of being assaulted and segregated.
