To gauge interest in some of Nicolas Cage’s latest flicks, Looper ran a poll that asked 592 respondents to choose one of four recent titles as their favorite of the bunch. 2020’s “Jiu Jitsu” came in last with a mere 16.39% of the ballots, placing it firmly under “Pig” from 2021, which took home 23.14%. Next came the bonkers “Five Nights at Freddy’s”-esque “Willy’s Wonderland” from 2021 at 26.69%, leaving “Prisoners of the Ghostland” from that same year to score first place with the remaining 33.78% of the votes.
Helmed by visionary director Sion Sono — known best for such films as “Love Exposure” and “Suicide Club” –, “Prisoners of the Ghostland” starred Nicolas Cage as Hero. Though a seasoned criminal, he’s tasked by the Governor (Bill Moseley) to retrieve his daughter, Bernice (Sophia Boutella), from a region known as the Ghostland. Despite the danger involved with traversing an irradiated, dangerous wasteland, Hero takes the job, making for a film that audiences loved and supplemented both Cage and Sono’s filmographies quite nicely.
Reactions to “Prisoners of the Ghostland” were mixed at best, and it wasn’t exactly a box office juggernaut, but that seemingly did little to affect people’s enjoyment of it. After all, a fair number of people would consider it Nicolas Cage’s most entertaining release out of his recent crop of films.