Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021) Review

“Prisoners of the Ghostland” Theatrical Poster

Director: Sion Sono
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Ed Skrein, Tak Sakaguchi, Bill Moseley, Nick Cassavetes, Yuzuka Nakaya, Young Dais, Koto Lorena, Jai West, Cici Zhou
Running Time: 103 min.

By Henry McKeand

When talking or writing about Nicolas Cage, the word “extreme” inevitably comes up. In some ways, it has defined his career, leading to a perhaps unfair reputation as an overactor. This reputation, coupled with memes and viral videos and a glut of direct-to-video sludge necessitated by his own poor financial planning, led to Cage becoming a punchline for legions of uninspired internet humorists. Recently, thanks to roles in films such as Mandy, Color Out of Space, and Pig, Cage has rebounded from this career low point. Even his most gonzo performances are being reappraised by those who once wrote him off as a one-note has-been. Recently, his celebrity image and brand of extreme, expressionistic acting, which he calls “Nouveau Shamanic,” were reclaimed by the self-referential The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he played a version of himself. It seems that Cage has found power in leaning into the joke. 

For those (this writer included) who view him as one of the greatest film stars of all time, this is mostly a good thing, but the Cage renaissance is not without its caveats. Because, by embracing his wide-eyed Wicker Man image, Cage runs the risk of losing a piece of what once made his career so special: down-to-Earth likeability. His admirers often talk about his electric work in Bringing Out the Dead and Wild at Heart, but his greatest trick was always his ability to dial it back for genuine feel-good fare such as It Could Happen to You and National Treasure. While his Castor Troy freakouts may be fun to revisit, it’s important to remember that he spent most of Face/Off as the measured and heroic Sean Archer. But that was a long time ago, and Cage’s recent success has come from hitching himself to auteurs who want to harness his untapped essence.

Cue Sion Sono, another man with a close association to extremity. For him, even more so than Cage, it’s part of his DNA as an artist. His most acclaimed and notorious work, 2008’s four-hour Love Exposure, was a scattershot epic centering around the concept of upskirt photography. There’s certainly more to Sono than shock value, but there’s no denying that he tends to go big. His Tokyo Tribe was a perfect example—an irreverent and ultraviolet rap musical about warring gangs that was equally fun and exhausting. 

When it was announced that Sono and Cage were teaming up, it was easy to imagine that the resulting experience would be nothing less than mind-blowing. But when the film was released in 2021 as Prisoners of the Ghostland, the fanfare was surprisingly low. While divided critics were mostly lukewarm (a word that Sono must hate), the abysmal iMDB score suggests that audiences were far less kind. 

A year later, Prisoners of the Ghostland’s impact doesn’t seem to have grown much. So, what happened? Did Cage and Sono fly too close to the sun, trying too hard to out weird one another while failing to live up to their past glories? Or is the film an underseen and underappreciated passion project destined for cult classic status?

Of course, the answer is somewhere in the middle. No, the film’s mix of samurai and western iconography is far from novel, and the Escape from New York meets Mad Max set-up isn’t any fresher. Furthermore, the affected edginess fails to shock save for a few short scenes. There are moments where even Cage seems overwhelmed by the expectation to make something crazy, and he comes off as uncharacteristically self-conscious at times. This is to say nothing of the plot, which is paper thin to the point of transparency. 

Cage plays “Hero,” a hardcore criminal with a mysterious past who is forced by an apocalyptic town’s “Governor,” played by horror legend Bill Moseley, to rescue a young woman named Bernice from the uncaring wastelands. Played by the magnetic Sofia Boutella, Bernice seems like she should be the emotional core of the movie, but she is sadly underdeveloped. It’s even harder to care about the multitude of oddball desert misfits who Hero meets on his journey. 

Still, there are plenty of joys to be found here. First off, it isn’t boring. If you’ve never scrolled through “epic modern grindhouse” Shudder exclusives about apocalyptic wastelands only to watch a 75 minute “love letter to genre filmmaking” that feels about as long as Andrei Rublev, you can’t understand that this is a minor miracle for a modern movie inspired by The Road Warrior. There’s also Cage, who can’t help but be wildly engaging even when he can’t quite decide who his character is. His performance, which ranges from tough guy stoicism to almost childlike enthusiasm, gives the film a pulse even when the plot itself threatens to drift away into the ether.

Sono, too, is not at a loss for talent, and his arresting compositions bring over-sized visions of junkyard opulence and Edo-themed Americana to life. Action scenes are clear and kinetic, and there are individual images that will stay with you long after you’ve forgotten about the plot. Luckily, the pacing is swift, never getting bogged down by too much desert wandering or exposition.

All in all, Prionsers of the Ghostland is an enjoyable late-night watch, but it seems unlikely that it will leave the weirdo legacy that Cage and Sono were hoping for. For all its cinematic reference points, the film it has most in common with is Takashi Miike’s similarly over-the-top Sukiyaki Western Django. Both are fun despite ultimately being shallow, overly self-aware genre mashups. Maybe there’s some truth to the idea that the real cult movies were never trying to be cult movies. It’s comforting to know that Cage and Sono’s sensibilities haven’t been softened by old age or notions of mainstream prestige, but both artists would be better off putting their idiosyncrasies into stories with real substance and heart.

Henry McKeand’s Rating: 5.5/10