Ghostland

Time for a fresh start: after the death of her aunt, Pauline (Mylène Farmer) moves with her daughters Beth (Emilia Jones) and Vera (Taylor Hickson) to her old country house in the middle of nowhere. The girls are less than thrilled with the house, which is crammed with all sorts of strange curiosities. Vera, in particular, whines about having to leave her friends for this. But that is soon the least of their problems. For on their very first night in their new home, the three are attacked by a pair of perverted killers. Although they survive, the trauma still runs deep years later. Beth (Crystal Reed), who has since become a successful horror writer, seems to have come the closest to processing the events. Unlike Vera (Anastasia Philipps), who still lives in the old house with her mother and is almost constantly haunted by delusions. When things get particularly bad, Beth decides to return to the scene of the horrific crime after 16 years - which quickly turns out to be a big mistake.

With Ghostland, director Pascal Laugier delivers another shocker ten years after his acclaimed Martyrs, though this one doesn't get quite as drastic. Nevertheless the 16er release of the FSK is already a small surprise. Because in some ways quite sexualized violence against girls is not exactly a material that the FSK is otherwise so open-minded. Be that as it may, the more important question is whether the film will satisfy genre fans. And here the answer is clearly and unequivocally - YES!

Yes there is for the dramaturgical structure, which holds a really successful surprise after about half an hour. This twist might not contribute much to the tension build-up, but it adds a very interesting psychological layer to the story, which makes the film stand out from similar genre works. However, it also has to be said that the use of a similar twist in the final third then doesn't work quite as well, as the surprise effect is completely missing here. Still, the twist is clever and well executed and leaves a very positive impression.

A no, however, for the fact that the story is clearly dragged out, especially towards the end. The basic idea is good and exciting, but unfortunately not quite enough to fill 90 minutes. And so the horror repeats itself several times, which makes the movie absolutely predictable, especially for horror fans. And that's a real shame after the clever build-up of the first act. Still, even if the film doesn't quite achieve the impact that Martyrs left, Ghostland is overall a thrilling, well-acted and atmospherically realized shocker that absolutely deserves a worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp