Ghostland

Ghostland
Directed by Pascal Laugier
Produced by
  • Clément Miserez
  • Jean-Charles Levy
  • Matthieu Warter
  • Nicolas Manuel
  • Ian Dimerman
  • Scott Kennedy
  • Sami Tesfazghi
  • Brendon Sawatzky[1]
Written by Pascal Laugier[2]
Starring
Music by Todd Bryanton[2]
Cinematography Danny Nowak[3][4]
Edited by Dev Singh[2]
Production
companies
  • 5656 Films
  • Mars Films
  • Logical Pictures
  • Inferno Pictures
  • Highwire Pictures
  • Kinology
  • Radar Films[2]
Release date
  • 3 February 2018 (2018-02-03) (Gérardmer)
  • 14 March 2018 (2018-03-14) (France)
Running time
 91 minutes[5]
Country
  • Canada
  • France
Language English[6]

Ghostland (also known as Incident in a Ghostland) is a 2018 psychological horror drama thriller film directed by Pascal Laugier.[7] The film begins with a woman inheriting her late aunt's house and moving in with her daughters. During their first night there a gang of murderers break in, and events change the family's lives forever. Sixteen years later, the now-adult daughters return with their mother to the house.

Ghostland was shown in competition at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer, where it won three awards, including the Grand Prize.

Cast

Production

Ghostland is a Canadian and French co-production with Canada providing 69.12% of funding and France providing 30.88%.[6] The film was predominantly shot in Canada.[7]

Accident

In December 2016, actress Taylor Hickson was facially disfigured while shooting a scene for the film. She was rushed to the hospital and received 70 stitches but was permanently scarred. In March 2018, Hickson sued the film’s production company, Incident Productions, over lost work as a result of the incident. Hickson claimed in the lawsuit that, "in the course of shooting the scene, the director Pascal Laugier, consistently told Hickson to pound harder on the glass with her fists".[8] While filming another take, the lawsuit states:

"The glass shattered, causing [her] head and upper body to fall through the door and shards of glass. As a result of the incident, [she] badly cut the left side of her face."[8]

Hickson, in the lawsuit, states that the company failed to take "any and all reasonable steps to ensure that industry standards and practices were adhered to, including but not limited to the use of safety glass and/or stunt doubles as appropriate."[8]

Release

Ghostland was first shown in competition on 3 February 2018 at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer.[5][2][9] Ghostland won three film awards at the festival including the Grand Prize, Audience Award and the SyFy Award.[9][10] The SyFy award was chosen by five bloggers at the festival.[10] Frédéric Strauss of Télérama noted that this was the second French co-production in a row that dominated the awards at the festival, with the previous years big winner being Raw by Julia Ducournau.[7] The film received a theatrical release in France on 14 March 2018.[6] In some territories the film was released as Ghostland and in others as Incident in a Ghostland.[11]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 40%, based on 15 reviews with an average rating of 5.5/10.[12] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13]

The Hollywood Reporter declared the film to be a "taut — if somewhat corny — slasher flick" and it was "neither for the faint of heart nor the sharp of mind".[1] The review noted the dialogue, finding that "for [the director's] second film in English after 2012’s The Tall Men, he could have brushed up more on his dialogue, which rings awfully flat."[1] Dennis Harvey of Variety declared the Ghostland "all seems slick, intense, and unpleasant in the same hollow way "Martyrs" did, because all the cruelty is so meaningless. Replacing that film’s empty pseudo-mysticism are villains for whom Laugier doesn’t bother providing any motivation or backstory."[11] Simon Abrams of 'Village Voice' wrote that the film was a "disturbing and effective critique of misogynist torture porn" it "may sometimes play like a mindlessly gory slasher clone, but Laugier’s tormented girls consistently prove to be stronger than their brutalized bodies."[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mintzer, Jordan (20 March 2018). "'Ghostland': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ghostland" (in French). Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  3. ↑ "Ghostland". Première (in French). Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "Ghostland: Casting". AlloCiné (in French). Webedia. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Programmation" (in French). Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 "Ghostland". UniFrance. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Strauss, Frédéric (5 February 2018). "Festival de Gérardmer 2018: l'année des poupées sanglantes (et françaises!)". Télérama (in French). Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 Robb, David (6 March 2018). "Actress Taylor Hickson Sues Producers Over Disfiguring Injury". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  9. 1 2 Keslassy, Elsa (7 February 2018). "Pascal Laugier's 'Ghostland' Crowned at Gerardmer, Pre-Sells to Key Markets (Exclusive)". Variety. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  10. 1 2 "Palmares 2018" (in French). Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  11. 1 2 Harvey, Dennis (21 June 2018). "Film Review: 'Incident in a Ghostland'". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  12. ↑ "Incident in a Ghostland (Ghostland) (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  13. ↑ "Incident in a Ghostland Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  14. ↑ Abrams, Simon (22 June 2018). ""Incident in a Ghostland" Is a Disturbing and Effective Critique of Misogynist Torture Porn". The Village Voice. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
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