Ghost Town Anthology review – spooky drama will lull you to sleep

Those expecting to be scared out of their wits by the deceivingly-titled Ghost Town Anthology might have to settle for mildly perturbed instead. It’s difficult to know what to make of this frustratingly slow film – one that’s forever straddling the line between spooky horror and very serious drama but never quite succeeding as either. And whilst it might achieve an evocative portrait of small town lethargy, it doesn’t necessarily make for entertaining – or particularly thought-provoking – viewing.

It is directed by experimental filmmaker Denis Côté (his eleventh feature) and set in a remote village called Irénée-les-Neiges, somewhere in the Quebec region of North America. With a population of just 212, it’s the sort of place where everybody knows everybody else, for good or for worse. Ghost Town begins with a bang: a car swerving off an icy road into concrete blocks, cause unknown. It’s an intriguing opening that poses lots of questions, especially as we glimpse masked children scurrying from the crash site. Unfortunately, it’s the eventful moment in a tale that wallows in snow-covered fields and cold interiors to a frankly numbing extent.

The narrative here – based on a 2015 novel by Laurence Olivier – is habitually unfocused, flittering between characters and stories at random. There’s Jimmy (Robert Naylor), whose brother Simon (Philippe Charette) was killed in the aforementioned crash, and their parents (Josée Deschênes and Jean-Michel Anctil), who can’t quite believe it’s the suicide everyone is claiming it to be. Elsewhere, mayor Simone (Diane Lavallée) tries to keep a hold over the town in a bid to ensure its future, whilst diner owner Pierre (Hubert Proulx) plots to bring money in with new developments.

It never really takes off. Côté has an annoying habit of ending scenes just as something interesting happens, like the moment a character notices something off-screen. Meanwhile, grainy cinematography (the film was shot on 16mm) hints that this town is well and truly stuck in the past, a point further emphasised when the dead suddenly return to haunt the living, assembling in large flocks under the perpetual white sky. But these ghosts are oddly benevolent creatures. They do little except stand around and stare. Some wear strange animal masks, though it’s never made clear why (or is it just a case of why not?)

With the arrival of these spirits, Côté is making a broader statement about the nature of grief, and also the fates of small towns whose inhabitants are being slowly drawn to the bigger cities. Are these lifeless ghouls so different from those who choose to remain behind? When Ghost Town Anthology is over you’ll probably be left wondering whether it even began. Try as you might to get on board with Côté’s vision, he seems utterly determined to leave you out in the cold.

★★☆☆☆

By: Tom Barnard

Get Ghost Town Anthology showtimes in London.

This film was screened to the press as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2019. For more information and showtimes for this year’s festival, head to our dedicated page.