[Film Review] Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

If there’s one thing you need to know about me before you read the rest of this review, it is that I LOVE Nicolas Cage. I cannot help it – from my first childhood viewing of Raising Arizona, I was hooked. If there was anyone, absolutely anyone, who could have been born into Film Royalty like the Coppola family, thank God it was him. So, obviously, I went into this film with high expectations, since the man himself described it as “the wildest thing I’ve ever made.” And while I was certainly confused, I cannot say I was disappointed. 

The core thing to understand going into Prisoners of the Ghostland is that, while there is a story, the story does not in any way take precedence in the experience of watching the film. What I mean by that is, yes there is a story that you can follow, but like so much great conceptual cinema, enjoyment of the movie does not hinge on comprehension of the plot. Narrative, performances, and aesthetics all sit in a flat hierarchy in this film and all three are equal in what they bring to the table. I’ll fully admit to getting lost in some visuals and there are a fair amount of dream/flashback sequences, but I really didn’t care that there were some things I wasn’t understanding as fully as I could have. This film, if watched with an open mind, gets you away from intellectualizing cinema, and just lets you sit in some sublime weirdness for an hour and forty-five minutes. 

But that’s not to say that there aren’t narrative points to pick up on. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic area of Japan, cordoned off after a nuclear accident and turned into a feudal estate by The Governor (Bill Moseley), an American man with delusions of Wild West grandeur. The film is thus playing with significant historical anxiety surrounding the American occupation and stewardship of Japan following the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; it thinks hard about how Japan has dealt with the fallout of that, both literally and culturally. I’m not sure it comes to any comforting resolution but sitting with the discomfort of that is in itself an important thing for an American audience, at least. 

The film is a fusion of the American West and Japanese high samurai culture which extends beyond the narrative and visuals in interesting ways. Nic Cage as “Hero,” Sofia Boutella as Bernice, and Moseley all give performances that some might read as wooden but are actually an intentional exaggerated pantomime. Thus, it reads as a type of kabuki theater, with actors giving archetypal performances that play with melodrama in interesting ways. There’s even a theatrical chorus of sorts at several points, with the Governor’s harem of granddaughters clapping and chanting during emotionally significant moments. 

The holistic experience of the film is dramatically impacted by its visuals, which deal in high contrast. Each location and dreamscape is highly differentiated with scenery and lighting, so it’s hard to even say that the film has a cohesive design sensibility. But these stark differences work in the film’s favor, by clearly signaling a tonal shift that might not be apparent just from following the narrative. Ghostland makes particular use of colored lighting to great effect – almost veering into giallo territory with its use of gels and neon.  

Taken as a whole, Prisoners of the Ghostland is a weird and sublime meditation on remaining cultural tensions between the US and Japan. What I haven’t talked about yet, and what I think a lot of the film’s detractors are getting at, is its place within the horror genre. This film is a Shudder exclusive, and if you look at the user comments for the film, you can see a lot of people claiming that this movie is not actually horror. And on some level, I agree with them. The film does not set out to scare you, make you uneasy, or even gross you out (though there is one really excellent moment of gore). Thematically, it doesn’t do the things that typify horror for a lot of fans. So if you’re looking for a traditionally scary experience, look elsewhere. But if you’re willing to take an expansive view of genre cinema, where lines blend between horror, science fiction, and fantasy, where stuff doesn’t have to be linear or make a whole lot of sense, then you’ll have an amazing time with this film.

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