Shudder: five films to be thankful for this Thanksgiving
By Carla Davis
5. Incident in a Ghostland
Why it’s appropriate for Thanksgiving: Like all of the other films on this list, Incident in a Ghostland features a story about a family; in this case, a mother and her two daughters. And what screams Thanksgiving louder than family getting back together after an extended period of time?
Pauline, along with her teen daughters Beth and Vera, have inherited a creepy old house and travel to check it out. The house is kind of secluded, so there is no one close by to help the family when a very large, mentally challenged man and a terrifying woman arrive in a candy truck and proceed to terrorize them, assaulting Vera before Pauline stabs them both.
Sixteen years later, Beth is a mega-successful horror writer who has just written a book based on her family’s experience in the creepy house (where her mother and sister still live). Vera, who continues to mentally re-live the trauma she suffered, makes a hysterical phone call to Beth pleading with her to come home.
When Beth arrives back at the house, things start to get weird, and to say much more about the plot would spoil it for you. Suffice it to say, there are some horrifying twists and turns as Pauline, Beth and Vera’s story continues.
This movie has creepy dolls, terrifying villains and sympathetic characters. It also has a high level of graphic violence and gore, so be prepared going into it.