'At the Place of Ghosts' Review: Beautifully Shot but Emotionally Distant
- Jack Ransom
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
By Jack Ransom - October, 2025
What is At the Place of Ghosts about?
At the Place of Ghosts sees siblings Mise'l and Antle, who were close as children, but trauma from their upbringing has caused them to drift apart as adults. When they are both haunted by a malevolent spirit of bones and rot, the siblings are forced to reunite.
Another LFF pick that was a blind watch for me, that I was drawn to by its premise. Unfortunately, this one very much falls into the style over substance category for me, which frequently I have not got an issue with, except here the weighty themes of trauma, guilt and family, coupled with the overarching folk horror inklings probably deserved a more in-depth screenplay, instead of the film wandering into tick box territory at times.
At just over 80 minutes the film doesn’t overstay its welcome and feels like somewhat of a double-edged sword as the amount of material the writers crafted stretches that duration to maximum, however I wanted to delve further into more of the horror and tidbits of mythology and lore that surrounds the brothers. Unfortunately, the overarching plot isn’t particularly remarkable, and the stop-start structure does hit plodding territory at points.
The film is stunning to look at, and the natural landscape cinematography is gorgeous: from the waters to the crowded never-ending woodlands, it’s brilliantly shot and features a myriad of trippy camera angles and off-kilter encounters. The scares don’t particularly land well and largely resort to Blumhouse jumps which is a shame, but really the foreboding atmosphere and discomforting reveals are what the film wants you to focus on.
Forrest Goodluck and Blake Alec Miranda play the siblings and give committed performances to what are familiar archetypes. The former’s single father emotionally walled off headstrong younger brother and the latter’s effeminate, distant and looked down upon older brother have solid chemistry and their father is a briefly intense presence by Glen Gould.
Is At the Place of Ghosts a good film to watch?
At the Place of Ghosts is a beautiful film to look at and has some intriguing ideas and an eerie tone but is held back by an undercooked and clashing screenplay that has its moments, but can’t quite deliver a truly emotionally striking story or a frightening horror experience.
At the Place of Ghosts premiered in the UK at the BFI London Film Festival on October 10, 2025
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