Ladda Land Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After a family moves into a new home they discover the neighborhood is slowly being overtaken by ghosts.

Review: Imagine for a second that you're a Tumblrina with undiagnosed autism. One day, you decide to stop writing Wincest fanfics for a hot second to fulfill your life's dream of finally writing an original story. You want to write a gripping, emotional drama telling of a father's struggle to keep his family together in order to cope with your own daddy issues. However, your headmate, Claudia, is like totally stubborn and stuff and absolutely refuses to write anything but horror. With your mom beating down your door, because you "forgot" to take your adderall that morning, you decide to throw Claudia's script in a blender with yours. Sure, neither of your stories will make sense as a consequence--not that they made much sense to begin with--but, hey, at least you can take solace in all the attention you'll get from your androgynous crush when you text them (while they're sitting next to you) about this harrowing trauma!

...and that's, more or less, what the writing process was like for this movie. By the way, is it Laddaland or Ladda Land? Amazon idiotically has it listed as both and wikipedia has it spelled one way while imdb has it the other! Anyway, I don't know what went wrong here. I was loving the direction this film was heading but then it quickly veered off course toward oblivion. We've seen all manner of script-in-a-blender over the years, but this one might take the cake as the story was actively fighting against itself. How in the fuck was this the same writer/director behind "Coming Soon?!"

The dramatic side of this tale is better than the horror. We may get a cliched father, mother, daughter, and son combination, but there is emphasis on their personal issues. I am pissed though that they didn't kill the daughter--she was a straight up Jar Jar character. The father is, I guess, the main character as we see his efforts to keep the family together and happy. Often times these moments are straight out of a soap opera which makes you wonder what the hell does any of this have to do with horror. For example, the father wants to prove himself to the mother in law who hates him, but he's too proud to admit when he's been laid off from his job. Or the classic falling behind on the bills shenanigans. The film does endear you to the situation to a degree, but everything feels like too big of a mess to focus. To say the pacing is uneven would be a huge ass understatement.

The horror side absolutely makes no sense despite an apparent buildup. At first the neighborhood appears nice enough until some maid is found murdered in a fridge. Oh, surely this murder will hold significance, right? Of course not! As more people drop dead, ghosts appear, and there's an unexplained, borderline "Scooby Doo" moment--you really wonder what the hell does all of this mean. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't know either. We are offered no answers or even implications to draw upon. The neighborhood doesn't even start off haunted so you can't default with that explanation. Every ghost we see is of the recently dead which confounds the situation. Okay...maybe this is like "Poltergeist" and there are supernatural forces connected to the land? Nope. Some kind of next level, supernatural virus spreading similarly to "Ring?" Yeah, right. I got it! The father is really the killer and everything has been in his head as he attempts to cope with his failure to provide for his family? NO?! So there are ghosts only for the lulz? And their entire usage is simply to create various plot devices and contrivances? Oh...fuck...

Dude, I have no clue what went wrong here. You might think the story is presenting itself as overly upbeat just to pull the rug out from under you, but that is not even close to the intention. Maybe there was supposed to be a metaphor that the ghosts represented, but pretty much every character, including background fodder, also sees the ghosts which makes that angle a moot point. The ending also goes for teary-eyed rather than a final zinger or anything. With no resolution to the ghost part of the story, you are left to ponder what was the point to anything we saw. Suffice it to say, this film has no clue what it wants to be or the story it wants to convey. To simply brush it off as a drama with ghosts--like it's a family horror film--would be inaccurate. It truly is as if two directors were filming their own separate movies and were suddenly spliced together in post-production. While the editing is perfectly fine, this is the strangest case of plot confusion to date. I want to say--maybe--this film is worth watching despite this problem. It does have a lot of great ideas and moments, but the nonsensical depiction of these events kills it for me. Definitely be weary of what you're getting yourself into though.

Notable Moment: When the one ghost conveniently appears to a cat that had a camera attached to its collar. Of course, of course! Yes, ghosts know when a little kitty will have a camera on them so they can say "boo" to the audience. Nevertheless...the ghost did look cool and it is unexpected (sorta).

Final Rating: 5.5/10