Film Review
Here we go again. Just when you thought that auteur cinema
had had its fill of the slasher movie, back it comes, like the
ghost of Michael Myers, bloodier and hungrier than ever
before. France is in the vanguard of this latest resurgence of
interest in the slice 'em and dice 'em genre, which is surprising given
that the French have traditionally given the horror genre a very wide
berth. Predictably, the latest wave of entrail-ripping thrillers
is dominated by the kind of juvenile dross that killed off the last few slasher crazes, but a few stand out from the rest, capturing
both some measure of critical acclaim and an international
audience. These include Alexandre Aja's blood-drenched
Haute tension (2003) and David
Moreau and Xavier Palud's more subtly chilling
Ils
(2006). Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's startling debut
feature
À l'intérieur
takes the slasher concept and propels it into a new and more terrifying
direction, combining it with elements of fantasy and psychological
thriller to deliver a truly harrowing viewing experience.
Film horror is back, and it's badder and bloodier than ever.
What makes
À
l'intérieur so particularly disturbing and sets it apart
from the more conventional slasher film is that it blurs the boundary
between reality and imagination to such an extent that anything is
possible, and yet everything appears to be horrifyingly real. The
nearest film to it is Wes Craven's
A Nightmare on Elm Street
(1984), which offers a similar excursion into a dreamscape of
self-induced torment, one in which adolescent sexual repression
manifests itself as an all-pervasive and deadly evil (named Fred). The title
À l'intérieur
suggests the same kind of of internal conflict, in which the
protagonist, a pregnant young woman, must confront her own demons, the
product of a traumatic car accident and an impending child birth,
and risk losing her sanity along the way.
À l'intérieur is
certainly one of the most visually arresting and shocking horror films
to have had its gore-drenched set pieces splattered across cinema
screens in the past decade, but its gruesome excesses do occasionally
go too far and give it an air of theatricality which weakens the
tension and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. As Béatrice
Dalle continues with her sadistic killing spree, happily eviscerating
her male victims with knitting needles, scissors and a relish that
makes Norman Bates look like a rank amateur, there is a point at which
the film stops being frightening and comes close to tumbling into the usual
slasher movie groove, sacrificing sustained terror for cheap grand
guignol-esque thrills.
As impressive as the mise en scène is (for the most part), even
this cannot conceal the film's one Achilles heel, which is a screenplay
that ought to have gone through at least three more revisions before it
was mailed to the actors. Alysson Paradis (sister to Vanessa)
shows great promise in this, her first major screen role, but her
attempts to fashion a convincing character are frustrated by some
remarkably bad dialogue. Béatrice Dalle does not have this
problem, mainly because her character is the silent but deadly type, so
her histrionic skills are not compromised by the screenwriters'
inability to write human. If you thought Dalle was scary as the
cannibalistic siren in Claire Denis'
Trouble
Every Day (2001), here she will freeze your blood with
ease. Her character looks as if she could have Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees
for breakfast, and still enough appetite for Freddy Krueger on toast.
For die-hard fans of the classic slasher movie,
À l'intérieur is a
must-see film, one that shows this now generally reviled genre at its
most nihilistic and viscerally shocking. Had a little more work
gone into the script, this could have been something special, a dark
and intelligent study in mental breakdown that probes the absolute
limits of psychological terror. As it is, the film delivers all
the familiar shocks and gore-soaked nastiness that we associate with
the modern slasher movie, but does little to endear itself to those who
like a little more meat and flavour in their horror films - the
latter will doubtless be left hungry by this latest unbridled gore fest.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Sarah continues to be traumatised by her memory of the horrific car accident
which cost the life of her husband and which very nearly killed her as well.
It is Christmas Eve, and she must spend the night alone in her house, not
a pleasant prospect for a woman who is due to give birth within twenty four
hours. The day passes peacefully until a strange woman dressed in black
appears on her doorstep and asks to borrow her phone to make an urgent call.
That same evening, when Sarah has gone to bed, she is awoken by the sound
of an intruder. To her surprise, it is the same woman she saw earlier.
Sarah is convinced that this stranger intends taking her baby away from her,
believing it to be rightfully hers...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.