‘Prisoners Of The Ghostland’
All of us who consider themselves to be Nicolas Cage fans approach each one of his new, late-period movies with a sense of trepidation, because we never know what we’re going to get. Is this going to be another Mandy, a trippy, gorgeous, psychedelic horror movie that blows your mind? Or is this going to be another Willy’s Wonderland, a trippy, poorly filmed, psychedelic horror movie that blows your mind? Well, I’m happy to report that Cage’s latest project, Prisoners of the Ghostland, is more Mandy than Willy, in that it’s trippy and (semi-) psychedelic, but it’s by no means a horror movie. No, this one is more of a Western, but one that swaps six-shooters for samurai swords, and dusty cowboy towns for neon-accented pagodas. Japanese gonzo auteur Sion Sono is the film’s director, and with any luck, the first-ever pairing of these two kindred spirits hopefully will not be the last.