DailyView: Day 255, Movie 357

Whoa, I have to say that I am shaken.

Incident in a Ghostland is a horror/thriller currently on Netflix that is tense and taut throughout the entire film and left me feeling unsettled unlike too many films have.

A family is moving to the home of their Aunt Clarisse, who has recently died. Colleen (Mylène Farmer) and her two daughters Beth (Emilia Jones) and Vera (Taylor Hickson) had an incident on the highway with a candy truck, which was odd, but did not set off any concerns at the time.

Later at the weird old house, the candy truck returned and the Fat Man (Rob Archer) and the Candy Truck Woman (Kevin Power) invaded the house and tried to abduct the family, but Colleen fought off the pair, desperately trying to save her daughters.

Flash forward 16 years, Beth has written a successful book about the night in question, but a horrifying phone call from Vera brings her back to the house for more horror.

There were two moments in this that I will not spoil, but that caught me off-guard. I enjoy when something happens in a film, particularly a horror movie, that I do not see coming. That helped out the fairly simple remainder of the film quite a bit.

The film is exceedingly violent and filled with unnerving moments and situations. There are several moments where the film bordered on torture porn. I usually am not a huge fan of that type of horror but I was engaged with this story, the two girls especially. I found myself rooting hard for Beth and Vera and yelling suggestions to the screen, wishing that Beth could hear me.

Emilia Jones, who is brilliant in 2021’s CODA, does a tremendous job here too. She was the standout of the cast. Admittedly, the villains are just monstrous creations that have no reason for their actions. There are people like that, unfortunately, and while I prefer villains that I can understand, some times you just need monsters to fight.

I found this film to be filled with anxiety and a lot of unsettling fun to watch. If you are a horror fan and you do not overwhelm easily, you may want to check this one out.