“I wrote this book to keep from going insane.”
This article is loaded with spoilers, so turn away now if you’ve yet to see the film.
Upon its release in theaters and on digital platforms back in June, the discourse surrounding Martyrs director Pascal Laugier’s Incident in a Ghostland (now also on DVD) was largely dominated by its more problematic aspects, particularly the valid concern that it helps perpetuate some troubling stigmas; one of the film’s two killers is either a cross-dressing man or a trans woman, but it’s hard to say given it’s never really addressed. Either way, it’s the latest in a long line of horror films to demonize trans characters, presenting them as both creepy and insane.
No doubt, the film’s villains are frustratingly underdeveloped at best and quite problematic at worst, as our own Dax Ebaben pointed out in his recent review for this very site. But the flaws that are very much present in Laugier’s latest don’t derail the film entirely, as its weak points are bolstered by what ultimately amounts to be a surprisingly powerful storyline.
Underneath all of its brutality, a silver lining of hope.
Incident in a Ghostland centers on young sisters Beth (Emilia Jones) and Vera (Taylor Hickson), who move into a new house with their mother at the start of the film. It’s not long before a creepy ice cream truck pulls up outside, letting loose two sadistic killers who rampage through the home. Bravely, mom brutally dispatches them both with relative ease… or does she?
One of this year’s biggest gut punches comes courtesy of a second act twist in Incident in a Ghostland, wherein Laugier informs us that the version of events he had been showing us following the home invasion was merely a delusion inside the mind of Beth, who serves as the film’s main character. As it’s established right off the bat, Beth is obsessed with horror fiction (particularly the work of H.P. Lovecraft) and fancies herself a writer, using her scary stories to escape from her realities – in reality, she can hardly stand the sight of blood, nearly losing her mind when she has her first period. But whereas Beth had been coping with reality by conjuring up stories much scarier than anything she was actually living through, Incident in a Ghostland‘s twist informs us that what we’d been watching in the wake of the home invasion was actually a pleasant story she conjured up to escape a real nightmare. Go figure.
In her fantasy world, Beth has grown up and overcome the nightmarish events of her past, using them as the inspiration for a best-selling horror novel. She’s married. She has a happy child and a happy life. All of her dreams have come true. But in reality, things played out quite differently on that fateful night.
In reality, Beth’s mom was killed by the intruders, and Beth and her sister Vera have been chained up in the basement ever since, subjected to daily physical abuse by their mother’s killers. The man she imagined as her husband was merely an old photograph she had found in the basement. Same goes for the child she imagined having with him. None of it was real. Beth isn’t a successful writer who exorcised her real life demons by writing a hit horror novel. Rather, she’s still a child. And her nightmare is far from over.
The twist is a thoroughly devastating one, especially since Laugier had given us no indication whatsoever that Beth’s happy life was a fabrication inside her head. So when he pulls the rug out from under us, it’s a genuine shocker that delivers an emotional punch right to the gut. It’s not just a cruel twist, however, but rather a fairly brilliant representation of the film’s theme.
With Incident in a Ghostland, Laugier is clearly stressing the importance of storytelling, and the way that escaping into fiction can be one of the most effective ways to deal with whatever’s going on in our real lives. In the film, of course, it’s the most extreme of examples, with Beth being trapped in a horror movie nightmare and fantasizing that she’s living her dream life. But don’t we all cope with life’s daily struggles, both big and small, by daydreaming? By either writing our own stories or consuming the stories told by others?
How often is that escapism the only thing that’s even keeping us going?
What’s most interesting about Incident in a Ghostland is that Beth ultimately ends up surviving her ordeal, and saving her sister’s life as well, not because she’s physically strong but rather because she’s armed with a weapon nobody can take away from her: the boundless imagination that sits somewhere between her ears. Beth literally imagines a better life as a means to overcome what has become the most unimaginably awful existence, and it’s because of her escape into fantasy that she gets through the hellish ordeal unbroken. Essentially, she transcends the horrors she’s subjected to, which is clearly an idea that Laugier, having previously directed Martyrs, is fascinated with. The same cannot be said for her sister, whose own nightmare is perhaps even more horrifying. With no means to escape physically or mentally, Vera has been head-on dealing with every second of trauma. And she’s clearly the worse for wear as a result.
In the end, Beth has one final “daydream” that compels her to fight back and overcome her and her sister’s tormentors. Only this time, she seems to be keenly aware that it’s merely a daydream, the sort of happy life that she needs to fight for the future possibility of. In this particular daydream, Beth is at a Christmas party and her mother is there with her. So too is her idol, H.P. Lovecraft. Played by Paul Titley in the film, Lovecraft praises Beth’s writing in what plays out like an almost divine (and highly unexpected) moment of validation in her talents, spurring her on to fight for the ability to keep on living… to keep on writing. Rather than staying at the party/in the daydream, Beth chooses to return to her reality, finally facing it head on for the very first time. After all, escapism is only healthy in moderation. In a triumphant moment that’s incredibly on the nose but satisfying all the same, Beth beats her abuser half to death with the old typewriter she uses to write her stories.
The film’s final moments are quite moving, with Beth and Vera emerging from their prison and loaded up into separate ambulances. The paramedic looking over Beth comments to her that she’s a tough girl, and that she must be into sports. But Beth’s toughness is her brains, not her brawn. “I write stories,” Beth confidently tells the paramedic, shooting down his well-intended but ultimately insulting suggestion that she must be a certain type of girl to have so bravely survived such a horrible nightmare. For the first time in her life, she’s confident about her abilities. Not because a fantasy version of a dead horror author told her she’s good at what she does, but because her talents quite literally saved her life.
Laugier never tells us what becomes of Beth when she grows up. But it seems clear that her fantasy life will eventually become reality. The film’s cruel twist is also its hopeful potential.
Aren’t all of our daydreams, if only we persist?
