Ghostland aka Incident in a Ghostland (2018)

October Challenge Day 21:

I was introduced to French Extremism and director Pascal Laugier's work through Martyrs. Folks, that film MESSED ME UP BAD. I was not okay, NOT OKAY! after watching that film. In fact, I never want to see it again. Ever. 

But if someone asks me for a film recommendation - a film specifically made to f*** them up, Martyrs is the first thing that will come out of my mouth.

So when I saw that this film was also directed by Pascal Laugier, I truly fretted about whether to watch it or not. But the cover image was really neat... how bad could it get... ?

Really bad.

Ghostland

I thought I was out of the woods with this one when the first half of the film simply irritated me. I made this mistake with Martyrs so I should have known better.

Here we have a mother and two daughters moving into a new home. On their first night of arrival there's a break-in and things get really bad really fast, and then things suddenly calm down and look positive. So positive that one of the daughters decides to go back and visit her family, years after the incident. 

Here's were the irritation really kicked in for me. I couldn't believe any reasonable person would respond the way the mother and remaining daughter would respond when escapee daughter returned home. Something was terribly, terribly wrong. I almost stopped paying attention and thought to myself: "You didn't get me this time, Laugier!"

AGAIN. WRONG.

You can not trust this man's movies. Just. Don't. I feel confident enough to know not to trust them now, though. 

Saints preserve us, like Martyrs, this movie is BRUTAL. So much pain and torture you kinda just want to lay down and die. This film is also texturally revolting. There's scenes that cannot be unseen, and there's ideas that were actually expressed where you question if the creation of human beings is God's punishment for human beings. 

Gad damn French Extremism and your existential nightmare of the mind, reality, and pain.

In short, folks, this is not a *light* film and I certainly do not recommend it for people who enjoy *fun* horror. This is not fun. It's covered in filth and horribly detailed in it's derangement. Like Martyrs I will not be seeing it again but I'm glad I finally got this torturous experience behind me. 

Seriously folks, this is not a film for everyone and I'll only recommend it to the horror fans that I slowly back away from if they say they really love *this* stuff. 

Gaddamnit! A scene that involves *smelling* just popped into my head and now I want to throw up.

This is French Extremism so there's no good pairing and no good setting to watch it in. I just wish you the best of luck. 

I watched this film on Shudder or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to locate where else you fan find this monstrosity of a nightmare.