It starts pretty well and does not lose a lot of time on introductions. The classic inherited old house, full of the classic creepy dolls, a traumatic event, then as an adult, she has to go back to the house. Hard to come with a more classic setup for a horror movie. It could have been good, but instead, they went for a total change in the middle with a _big twist_.

The twist being, not only not a very original one ([spoiler]she actually never escaped[/spoiler]), but even a really boring one ([spoiler]so yeah, all you imagined would happen in the intro ? well you're gonna see it and it's the whole movie. Nothing special, nothing surnatural, nothing really.[/spoiler]) It would definitely have turned out better without it.

I was expecting a lot more, specially with the whole Lovecraft hype the movie is doing. However, turns out most of the movie from there is just a series of jumpscares, not particularly good ones.

I really don't like Mylene Farmer, but she was actually pretty good there.

Also, like a lot of Z movies (which this one isn't supposed to be), you have to go with the basics that different/ugly people are not only inherently evil, but a real special kind of psycho that you can't apprehend because it's not even human.

So yeah, the doll fetish thing is sick (how lucky was that that they found this house so full of them ?), but unless you get your kicks by watching young girls get beaten up (which apparently is the director's thing), nothing much to see here.

At first glance this film comes off as an extremely predictable horror flick, so the twist was clever seeing as I didn’t expect it until moments before it occurred but at that point… the film really started to fall flat for me. It peaked way too early and once we get passed the peak it started to come to a lull. The issue was that the movie seemed to be creating conflict not out of circumstance but out of boredom. The purpose of the protagonists got lost quickly.

Overall the film was a big let down for me. Seeing as this is from the director of MARTYRS, a horror gore masterpiece, my hopes were high for this film so I was definitely disappointed. The most redeeming quality of this film is the jump scares! Those were executed perfectly.

Sidenote: the antagonist character seemed to be casted to be a transphobic jab seeing as everyone referred to this person who was dressed like a woman as a “fucking man”, in a devisive way. Kinda tasteless.

Ghostland looks good but spins its wheels a lot narratively, especially in the second half, when it collapses into a pile of cliches from which it never emerges. If only the storytellers had cared about substance as much as style ... It'll pass the time but you can easily find something better to consume.