Sundance 2021 Review: Prisoners of the Ghostland – “The constant world-building never really builds to anything”

Prisoners of the Ghostland promises you the world: Nic Cage. Samurais. Cowboys. Warlords. Bank robbers. Busses full of radioactive ghost criminals. A weird guy who like, turns people into mannequins or something to hide them from ghosts who take away their senses or whatever. And it delivers on all of these things actually being in the movie, which is so much more than most b-movies have done in the past. But, it never really gels together into a cohesive piece. It all feels very repetitive, while simultaneously providing new and interesting imagery throughout the movie. It’s a strange combination.

In a post-apocalyptic future, a prisoner (Nicholas Cage) is freed by a warlord named The Governor (Bill Moseley) in order for him to track down his “Granddaughter” Bernice (Sofia Boutella) who went missing out in the wasteland. The Governor attaches a leather jumpsuit fit with explosives to the prisoner, in order to guarantee his success. He has three days to find Bernice out in the wilderness or he, you guessed it, explodes. 

Look, we all know why we’re here (or, at least why some of us are here): Nic Cage is in this movie, goddammit. He’s been on a tear as of late. His eye for neat genre fare has been on full display, and he delivers in this too. It’s a wonderfully cold, cool-guy performance. His line readings are off the charts, and his stage presence is, as always, top notch. Mandy comparisons have been made, as they always are with him in out-there projects now. This I disagree with vehemently though. His performance in Mandy is career defining as far as I’m concerned. To those thinking he’s just wacky and yells a lot in that movie, you’re nuts. It’s such a restrained, pained, and heartbreaking performance. Nothing of that caliber is found here, unfortunately. But, I suppose that isn’t really being asked of him. He’s meant to be a mysterious audience surrogate in this crazy world, and he does his job well.

Regarding the world of this film, I have conflicting thoughts. I think that the look of everything is wonderfully imaginative. It is reminiscent at times of the wonderfully off-beat Return to Oz. The production design is a sight to see, and the movie isn’t afraid to showcase it either. The implied stories happening all around Cage’s character draw you in, and the idiosyncrasies of the world are fun to discover. Unfortunately, that seems to be the primary focus of the film. The constant world-building never really builds to anything. The Governor and Bernice are merely devices by which we enter this world. Their story has only the broadest strokes painted; it needs so much more. In all truth, Yasujiro (Tak Sakaguchi), The Governor’s bodyguard, felt like the movie to me. He was the most interesting character by far and commanded your attention in every scene he was in. It’s a shame he isn’t in the movie nearly enough, and his story wraps up rather disappointingly too. 

I need something more than mere arresting imagery. Or, I should say, I need the arresting imagery to not constantly be in slow motion milking nearly every single interesting composition or set piece completely dry to the point of irritation. I love fun slo-mo as much as the next person, but it’s far too overused here. It gives this movie a snail’s pace built completely on artifice. A movie that is naturally slow lulls you in and gets you to submit to its own flow. This movie consists of scenes that should be half as long, that are twice as long due to unnecessary slow motion and a desperate need for tighter editing. 

Prisoners of the Ghostland has pacing issues structurally within the scenes as well. There are far too many scenes in the first two-thirds of the film that involve Nicholas Cage talking to one or more people while in large groups. These scenes also have an excruciating length to them. We also don’t get an action scene until nearly the end of the second act, and only two action scenes throughout the whole film. The first scene, a samurai fight, is truly exceptional. All set to Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”, it’s a visceral flash of style and brutality that the movie desperately needed much earlier. I loved it. I just wished that there was more of it sprinkled throughout the runtime.

At the end of the day, Prisoners of the Ghostland does a lot of things right. It has a cool world, fun genre mashup elements, neat character ideas, and some cool action. But, the balance of everything is all wrong. Most of the movie takes place in the 3 sets they built. They’re impressive, but repetitive as all hell. It suffers from a severe lack of energy, due to how many of the scenes feel like carbon copies of one another. I really wanted this film to work for me, but it just didn’t hit the mark. But, it does have one of Nicholas Cage’s testicles exploding cause he pops a boner, so it’s not all bad.