Frameline50: At the Place of Ghosts

A poetic supernatural horror film filled with ominous dread and ambitious narrative time leaps, At the Place of Ghosts follows two estranged Mi’kmaq brothers, Mise’l and Antle. After one of them is stalked by a terrifying spirit, they venture into the wilderness to exorcise a demon, confront the ghosts of the past, and mend the rift that formed between them years ago.

In order to heal from both emotional and literal demons, the two must venture deep into the Place of Ghosts — a dense forest where time unfurls and generational traumas reemerge — and relive their shared horror. Together, their journey into the heart of darkness could reconcile their fractured relationship. With the stunning beauty of the film’s natural landscape and its palpable tension throughout, the third feature from Two-Spirit director Bretten Hannam (Wildhood, Frameline46) is a thrilling and cathartic take on trauma-centric horror and a stunning visual achievement that queers not just story, but genre and time itself.