INCIDENT IN A GHOSTLAND
Canada/France, 2018, 91 minutes, Colour.
Crystal Reed, Mylene Farmer, Anastasia Phillips, Emelia Jones, Taylor Hickson, Kevin Power, Rob Archer.
Directed by Pascal Laugier.
French director, Pascal Laugier, made two successful horror films, one in France, Martyrs (deemed rather horrific by fans as well is those put off by the film) and one in the US, The tall Man with Jessica Biel.
This is a Canadian/French production although set in North America, the United States.
In the first 12 minutes of the film, we are introduced to a family, a French mother, the daughter reading out her horror story, her sister taunting her. They have inherited what seems to be something of a haunted house and is the target of home invaders. The invaders attack the women violently.
Then there is a twist, a transition to the story of the writer, now married with a child, the celebrity writer interviewed on television.
There is a further twist when she goes back to the house to see her mother and to care for her sister who is now violently disturbed. The author is subject to nightmares – and what follows, intruders in the house, the author checking her success, violence to the mother and sister, is the stuff of horror nightmares.
1. The director and his horror films? Settings in the countryside? Disturbing countrysides? The roads? Houses?
2. The title, the initial title of Ghos land? The international title adding Incident?
3. The plot, the first part, nightmare, followed by ordinariness, followed by more nightmare and fantasy? A successful blend?
4. The introduction to the mother and daughter is, Beth reading her story, Vera mocking her, the mother and her French background, supporting Beth? The truck passing and giving the finger? Stopping at the diner, the woman recognising them? The newspaper story about the home invasion in the murders? The going to the house, inheriting it? The bizarre interiors, getting the lights going, the dolls, the atmosphere of horror, the basement?
5. The quick introduction of a horror, the home invasion, the brutal big man, the ethereal figure, persecuting the women, the violence, Vera suffering, the impact on the mother, on Beth?
6. The impact of the transition, Beth is a successful writer, her husband and child, doing the television interview, writing the bestseller, the questions as to how much was based on her own experience?
7. Vera’s phone call, the screams, Beth deciding to go home? Encountering her mother, her mother seeming to be ordinary, managing to look after Vera? The contrast with Vera, her mental deterioration, violent episodes, outbreaks?
8. The complications of the story, moving into dreams, Beth in the house, waking, nightmares?
9. The increasing violence, the mysteries about Vera, her illness, mental state, violence, appearing and disappearing? The role of the mother? Beth, the transformations, the effect of Vera? The two selves? The introduction of the visitors, Beth and her stories, reputation? The injuries? The authorities arriving? Beth and her future? Or waking?
10. The effect of this kind of horror and mystery? The French imagination of the writer-director?
