PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND (REVIEW)

Dir. Sion Sono

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND is film that has everything set us to be a cult classic, and it may do over time but it's certainly not an instant hit.

Blending westerns, feudal Japan, Mad Max and Colonel Saunders, the most surprising part of POTG is how straight Nicolas Cage plays it. After his latest outings in MOM AND DAD, MANDY and COLOUR OUT OF SPACE, I was expecting to see Cage ham it up to 11 but it feels like he just turned up for the paycheck despite the director seemingly give him free reign in a sandbox of genres.

There's little to bring this back to horror as despite its themes, it's an action film with plenty, but only enough for a 15 rating, if blood. It's great to see Moseley play with the big guns and even with bombs strapped to his testicles, it's just not cool enough I think mostly because there's so much being thrown at the audience, it ls hard to make sense of it all.

There's credit to some of the cinematography as it certainly loves everything it's doing l, the visuals, whether in barren wastelands or neon lit Japanese-esque back streets, it's always good to look at.