Ghosts of the Civil Dead

Saw Ghosts of the Civil Dead, an Australian prison film. It opens on a slow credit sequence on a black background set to a soundtrack of thrumming industrial noises and an atonal, high-pitched singing. It feels a lot like a horror film and, in some ways, it is. The film is set in some near-future in a high-tech prison, full of cameras, monochrome color schemes and soothing, female voices making announcements. The prison ecosystem is stark but not barren, with drug dealers peddling their wares, intellectuals studying away, their cells lines with books, and a new guy entering the system. We are told beforehand that this will end up with the prison in full lock-down, so some shit's going to go down and that, as with many prison movies, the arbitrary rules of life in the prison function as a sardonic mirror to the arbitrary rules that make up human society.

So, the horror in this film is the growing power of the prison-industrial complex. The prisoners are treated worse and worse and we watch as their existence becomes more and more harrowing and stark. The futuristic bright colors and oppressive surveillance works well with the prison story, of being controlled more and more. The film is unsettling and troubling, looking somehow both filthy and spotlessly blank. The story it tells is a nervy descent into paranoia and conspiracy. Very interesting.

This has the feel of what I think of as a serious horror film. It's not aiming for a quick scare, with goblin or a murder or what have you, but it's going for the lingering unease, instilling cynicism and doubt. It's an effective film and fairly entertaining, for what it is. A grim but compelling film.