Forgotten flick - Ghosts of the Civil Dead

Ghosts…of the Civil Dead (1988)
Director: John Hillicoat

Ghosts…of the Civil Dead is the daring and confronting debut film by Australian director/writer John Hillicoat, which was co-written with producer/writer Evan English and Nick Cave. The film was the product of an aberration in the film financing scenario, which gave Hillicoat and English absolute economic and creative control and they elected to make a film that tackled issues few would dare to address.

Set in a futuristic correctional facility called Central Industrial Prison; an eerie structure that starkly sits alone in the desert, the film begins at the end and works through the various incidents that culminated in C.I.P. being thrown into a state of emergency and forcing it’s prisoners into a “Lock-Down” situation.

C.I.P. is made up of three self-contained “housing units”, which represents the three levels of security. Inmate Wenzil is new to C.I.P. and he is confined to the “New Generation” facility, which is a drugged-out supermarket styled containment centre that gives inmates freedom of movement, cable television, and access to a thriving black market trade rife with sex, drugs, electrical goods, tattoos etc.
The film follows Wenzil’s relatively easy induction into “New Generation” and then quickly shows his undoing as he becomes ensnared in the shady underworld of C.I.P.

In another part of C.I.P. is the “Administrative Segregation” section that houses inmates which are deemed to be high-risk and could potentially cause dissention in “New Generation”. Inmate Glover dwells in “Solitary Confinement”, a small concrete room with no light or toilet and it is used to make prisoners adhere to institutional life.

Things begin to deteriorate inside the walls of C.I.P when the drug supply and television privileges are cut off in “New Generation” section. This prison paradise quickly turns into a hellish environment as the prisoners become irritable due to lack of sedatives and creature comforts. With tensions and violent incidents between the prison guards and their restless captives escalating, the inmates inside C.I.P become like a collective spill of gasoline that has spread every part of the prison and the timely arrival of Maynard (Nick Cave) a deranged psychopath, sees him as the crazed match that will strike the first blow and ignite C.I.P. into a riotous inferno of revolt and human suffering.

Ghosts…of the Civil Dead shows how prisons further criminalize incarcerated individuals and demonstrates the way in which the media exploits the crimes committed by released prisoners who we’re not given constructive rehabilitation in the first place, which in turn keeps society in a state of constant fear.

By Jordan Bloomer

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