‘At The Place Of Ghosts’ review: Indigenous brothers take a dark path in moody Canadian chiller

Dir/scr: Bretten Hannam. Canada/Belgium. 2025. 87mins

Two estranged brothers take a trip into the Canadian woodland and encounter the ghosts of the past in this atmospheric horror from Indigenous non-binary filmmaker Bretten Hannam. A member of Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaw people, writer/director Hannam imbues their low-key chiller with enough cultural specificity to give it a voice in a crowded field, and it is further buoyed by unhurried pacing and strong performances.

Enough cultural specificity to give it a voice 

Hannam previously explored their Indigenous roots in numerous shorts and features such as North Mountain (2015) and Wildhood (2021); the latter of which also focused on two brothers attempting to reconcile a traumatic past. That film had a healthy festival run, and the same may be true for At The Place Of Ghosts, which plays London after premiering in Toronto’s Platform strand. Its striking visuals and assured sense of identity could attract arthouse and genre distributors looking for strong, diverse voices.

Mi’kmaw brothers Mise’l (Blake Alec Miranda) and Antle (Forrest Goodluck) were close as children but have since grown apart – Mise’l lives with his partner in the city, while Antle is raising his daughter in the suburbs. When Mise’l is visited one night by a dark, malevolent spirit, who evaporates into a cloud of leaves, he immediately recognises the apparition. The encounter is enough for him to persuade Antle to journey into the woodland near their childhood home and finally confront a long-buried secret.

Wilderness psychological horror has long been a popular sub-genre, with films from Deliverance and The Blair Witch Project to The Ritual and Calibre combining a beautiful natural setting with the darkest human impulses. At The Place Of Ghosts continues in this tradition and particularly has much in common with 2022 thriller Dark Nature, which similarly saw a group of Canadians travel into an Indigenous forest in search of healing.

There is certainly much that is familiar here. There’s the discordant, melancholy score from Indigenous musician Jeremy Dutches which is at uncomfortable odds with the lush, verdant surroundings captured in all their rich glory by cinematographer Guy Godfrey. There are the flashbacks to a shared trauma, and physical manifestations of grief and guilt which begin to affect the brothers’ bodies and minds. (Special effects work is minimal, but impactful.)

Slowly, however, Hannam reveals deeper narrative layers, both personal to the brothers – Mise’l’s queer identity, the shadow cast by an abusive father – and to the wider Mi’kmaw community. Performances from Miranda and Goodluck are subtle and unshowy; the brothers’ quest fuelled not by fear or hysteria, but a quiet acceptance of responsibility and an understanding of what must be done.

As they travel deeper into the wood – a hypnotic journey that seems to meander and loop – they encounter the spirits of past (and, in one slightly clunky scene, future) Mi’kmaw people, are exposed to their community’s trauma and come to better understand their own connection to this land. While some of this can feel heavy-handed, a more nuanced and moving strand sees the pair encountering their younger selves. While the climax may not pack the powerful cathartic punch that is traditional in horror, that’s perhaps the point. It may be impossible to change the past, says Hannam, but you can always try to seize ownership of it.