Baby Blood (1989)

"Baby Blood" is a fascinating French film from 1989 that is about an ancient alien life form that needs to be developed and born from a human in order to continue forward in its evolution. It finds the perfect host in a woman named Bianca who would at a circus. After the alien becomes impreganted in her, she leaves the circus for the city. Her lover comes to bring her back but she murders him at the alien's command. The alien needs blood in order to grow. She refuses this time but soon gives into its demands as it threatens her life. As the alien grows within, her methods of killing become more blatant and disconnected from her humanity. She eventually gives birth to what looks like a normal human baby, but this is just a shell of the monster within. The movie ends with the alien slipping into the sea to evolve once again.

Favorite moment - When Bianca is working as a taxi driver, picking up a fare and when she sees a jogger, she runs him into a wall and then kills the passenger. Has to feed the baby!

À l'intérieur aka Inside (2007)

“Inside” is easily one of the best new horror films I’ve come across this year. It is a brutal, unrelenting film that explores the terror of a defenseless pregnant woman being attacked in her own home by an unknown woman intent on killing her. This movie is violent and gory and doesn’t let the tension settle once it begins to build. Without giving too much away, the movie is about a pregnant girl named Sarah who lost her husband in car accident. A few months later she is scheduled to go on in for induced labor on Christmas Day. Her friend, her mom, and her boss are all concerned about how moody and withdrawn she’s become. In the middle of the night, a woman comes knocking on her door asking to use the phone. Sarah tells the stranger that her husband is sleeping and doesn’t want to risk waking him up, to which the stranger tells Sarah that she knows that her husband is dead. And thus starts the game of cat and mouse and the horror that Sarah will go through as she tries to survive the night.

A rumor exists that Jaume Balaguero (the writer and director of "REC" and "The Nameless") might be involved with a remake.

The Stranger and her weapon of choice

Sarah

Calvaire (2004)

“Calvaire” is a 2004 French/Belgium horror film that has elements that remind me of films like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Hostel” but in a psychological European way. In fact, this film also feels a lot like “Sheitan” and “Fronetier/s” because it’s all about a normal person having to deal with an entire village of people who are just not right. The worst of the group is an old hermit named Bartel who takes in Marc Stevens, a travelling singer/performer who puts on shows in retirement homes. Bartel essentially keeps Marc trapped in the village by destroyer Marc’s van when he claims that his fixing it. Bartel slowly loses his mind and comes to believe that Marc is his wife, a woman who left him years ago…and apparently slept around with the men in the village. The people of the village are rather bizarre and perverse themselves, as Marc discovers when he walks up to a family watching their teenage son having sex with the farm animals. Finally there is Boris, a young man who just wanders around searching for his lost dog Bella. This movie is a “slow burn” that takes is time, almost too much time, to build the suspense and the WTF factor. It’s the kind of movie you keep watching just to see what happens next to poor Marc.

Haute Tension (2003)

“Haute Tension” is a gruesome French horror film from 2003 that has a few major plot holes and a bit too much violence than is necessary. The movie was pretty interesting until the plot twist is revealed at which time the viewer (me!) is left with a feeling of “oh, that’s it?” With its weak story line that makes the movie feel shorter than it is this film is really just a fancy, slick slasher film that has some unique death scenes. This is not a bad thing as the director, Alexandre Aja, shows a lot of promise and has gone on to direct several other horror movies that I intend to see. And for the record, I am never comfortable with scenes that include realistic violence against children; luckily the one that is in the film is quick and the violence is merely implied and not shown graphically as all of the others are.

Marie and Alex, her best friend, are going out to the country to study for the weekend. Alex’s family has a large house which they recently bought and it’s the perfect place to get away and focus for a while. After meeting the family and settling in for the evening, Marie goes out for a smoke. When Marie is preparing to go to sleep, a stranger comes up to the house and begins a violent and brutal attack, killing the family and tying up Alex. Marie is able to hide from the assailant and watches him kill Alex’s mother and brother. She finds Alex and tries to untie her but is unable to. Marie is able to sneak into the stranger’s truck after he throws Alex into the back. The three end up at a gas station where Marie tries to get help but the stranger kills the attendant. The stranger drives off without Marie who then steals a car to follow. The stranger notices Marie and forces her vehicle off the road; now that he knows about her, Marie is forced to run for her life and eventually fight for her life in order to save her friend.

La Horde (2009)

Unlike “Mutants”, “The Horde” takes place in Paris and is teeming with thousands of hungry undead. This movie is filled with action sequences which feature the survivors going one on one with a zombie at various points; these scenes are fine but last too long and feel repetitive. The film is more action than horror and doesn’t try to build suspense, the closest it gets is when a gun jams or they run out of ammo right when a mob of zombies is closing in on them. It’s one of the better zombie movie choices on Netflex at the moment but it doesn’t offer anything new to the genre.

The plot is simple but interesting; a group of rogue cops try to extract revenge on a drug dealer after he kills one of their own. Everything goes downhill pretty damn fast when they realize how poorly thought out their attack plan is and how prepared the drug gang is. While the gang is dealing with the cops, the zombie apocalypse begins and they realize that they should work together in order to survive. The ending is surprising and fulfilling in one respect but makes you slap your head in another.

Favorite moment – When this scene happens!!! (see picture below).

Mutants (2009)

I love movies that take place in snow covered settings. There is an extra level of isolation and unquiet that happens which takes a horror movie’s suspense that much further. Great examples include “The Shining”, “30 Days or Night”, and “Cold Prey”. The French film “Mutants” is another fine example, an otherwise typical zombie outbreak story that happens to take place in a large abandoned building out in the snow covered mountain side. Half of the film focuses on Marco and his slow and painful transformation into a zombie/mutant and Sonia who is trying to ease his pain and find help. The other half of the movie is about Sonia trying to stay alive once other mutants arrive and trying to not find herself in the position where she has to kill her infected lover. There is nothing truly exceptional about this film, in the zombie genre or French style, but I still really enjoy watching this one every few months as it’s simply a solid, entertaining flick.

Ils (2006)

"Ills" aka."Them" is essentially the French version of the movie "The Strangers". It's all about a couple who live in a gorgeous house out in a wooded area who become the targets of a group of hooded individuals intent on inflicting harm. Both movies relish in the suspense they create and the build upon the feelings of helplessness and desolation throughout the film. In "Them", the couple are able to hurt, perhaps kill, one of their assailants before trying try to escape from the house. They eventually discover who is trying to kill them and the fact that the killers are played in a straight, non-unrealistic manner makes them come across as truly scary. 

Author's Note - French Horror

From what I’ve seen of the French horror scene, I’m thoroughly impressed! These films have such raw emotion and dare to push the level of comfort (for the audience) to the edge. The one thing I’ve noticed between the few French films I’ve seen and American movies is that the violence and gore is explained and/or justified. The reasons may not be the best but at least they’re there. These movies know what they want to do; tell a story and push the limits and intensity of each scene by having the characters suffer through such extreme situations. The film “Martyrs”, which I’ve already reviewed, is a great example and the version I rented began with the director of the film both apologizing for his work as well as thanking the viewer for watching. He was very sincere and but knew exactly what he had created, a movie that some (or a lot) of people were not going to be able to watch from beginning to end. 

A taste of things to come.....

"Sheitan"

"Haute Tension"

" À l'intérieur"

"Mutants"

Sheitan (2006)

"Sheitan" is the word for Devil in Arabic and is a reoccurring theme for this movie. First there is the opening scene with a DJ that goes by the name Sheitan and then later on there is a rapper (or perhaps it's the DJ again) with the same name. And then during a dinner conversation, the topic is discussed after the rapper's name is mentioned. Overall, it's an odd movie that appears to be uneven on purpose with a cast of characters that seem odd and discerning, a is set out in the countryside. Oh how the French love to set there horror out in the country!

Three friends are out at a club enjoying the night. Thai meets a cute girl on the dance floor named Eve, Ladj has a girlfriend but is busy talking to another cute girl, and Bart gets kicked out for being drunk and starting a fight. Once outside, everyone decides to go to Eve's house for the night. It takes all night to get there because she lives out on the country. When they get there they meet Joseph, the house keeper. He is a large and imposing man and quickly begins tormenting Bart like a big brother would. At Joseph's insistence, the group of friends go to the town's hot spring where they are joined by some locals who don't mind jumping in naked. Again Bart is picked on and is clearly not having a fun time. Back at the house, the group is having dinner and talking about why they aren't with their loved ones on Christmas Eve. This spurs a conversation about the Devil and Joseph shares a story about a man who wanted to be invincible and ended up sleeping with his sister, making her become pregnant and having to offer the Devil a gift in return. This creeps everyone out but not enough to go home or stop flirting with each other. But as the clock ticks closer to midnight, the oddities continue until all Hell breaks loose and Bart has a very, very bad time. 

Malefique (2002)

“Malefique” is a French horror film about four men locked in a prison cell together who find a spell book that could possibly help them escape. This movie feels like it had a very low budget due to the film quality and lighting but the acting from the four principal characters more than makes up for that. It’s not a great movie but it keeps the viewer engaged and has an interesting storyline. It feels like it was written by someone who is big fan of H.P Lovecraft or even early Clive Barker because it most definitely has that kind of vibe. My main complete about watching this film was trying to get the damn DVD to play the movie in French with English subtitles; the first several attempts ended up with an English soundtrack and subtitles. I have never encountered such a reluctant DVD menu before!

The film opens with the Charles Danvers, a convict who has collected and written down various spells in his diary and is attempting to escape from his prison cell. The spell must have worked because he is never seen again and his name becomes almost legendary within the prison. Flash forward to today and the movie now focuses on Carrere who is serving time for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. Unknown to him, his wife turned him in and divorces him while in prison, taking over his company and keeping their son to herself. In the prison cell, Carrere meets his new roommates. There is Marcus, a cross dressing violent man who looks like a French version of Meat Loaf’s character from “Fight Club”. Then there is Lassalle, a quiet intellectual who allows Marcus to violate him in order to keep the peace within the cell. Finally, there is Paquerette, a mentally challenged man who cannot stop eating things; in fact, he ate his little sister and that is why he is here in prison. The three men are all accused and convicted of murder, so Carrere tries to be careful while trying to include himself into their world after he learns that he isn’t going to be getting out nearly as soon as he had first hoped. It’s Carrere who first finds Charles’ book and recites a spell without realizing what he’s doing. With encouragement from Lassalle, the group tries a few spells in hopes of finding the one that Charles used to escape. When Paquerette  tries to eat the book, it strikes back at him, killing him in gruesome fashion. Marcus is outraged by this but Lasselle calms him down enough for the three to keep trying. When attempt after attempt fail, Marcus throws the book out the window, only for their new fourth roommate to come in with the same exact book in his possession. There is no doubt that the book has plans for the men and they explore that path is far as they can go.

Martyrs (2008)

“Martyrs” is the best horror movie I’ve have seen since starting this blog. While it is considered to be a part of the New French Extremity Movement, I don’t feel that the film is overly indulgent or excessively violent. I say this because all of the violence, and there is plenty, feels acceptable due to the context that the story provides. There is method and reason behind the violence, more so than for purely “getting off” like the violence displayed in films like “Hostel”. This movie feels fresh and is full shocking, adrenaline inducing moments that keeps the viewer completely engaged from beginning to end. The cult in this movie is unique from all of the other films I covered this week because they are not religious fanatics (in the normal sense at least), Satanists, or mislead followers of a dark power. These cult members are highly educated, powerful, methodical, and appear normal in every sense. It is their normalcy that makes their ulterior motives frightening; their intensity is on par with a serial killer like Buffalo Bill. The version that I saw included an introduction by the writer/director Pascal Laugler who both apologizes for the film but thanks you for watching his film. I highly recommend this film to everybody.

SPOILERS!    SPOILERS!    SPOILERS!     

The film begins with a young girl, Lucie, running barefoot through an old industrial complex. She is placed in an orphanage after investigators determine that she had been locked up and physically and mentally abused for an extended amount of time. She was not sexually abused and that leaves the investigators without a standard motive. At the orphanage, Lucie befriends Anna, who takes it upon herself to help the troubled girl. Early on Anna learns that Lucie believes that she is being stalked and tormented by a ghoulish woman covered in scars, and Anna is left unable to help her friend.

15 years later Lucie attacks a family at four while they are having breakfast one morning, killing all of them with a shotgun. She does this because she is certain that the parents are the ones who had kidnapped her and tortured her years before. After the brutal killings, Lucie calls Anna and asks her to help hide the bodies; Anna is furious because Lucie had promised to only check to see if this was indeed the correct family, verifying a picture that had appeared in a recent newspaper. Anna soon arrives at the secluded house and begins cleaning up the mess and dragging the bodies to a hole in the yard in which the mother of the family had previously dug up. As she is doing this, she discovers that the mother is still alive and tries to save her but Lucie comes into the room and brutally attacks the mother, smashing her head in with a hammer. Lucie then beings to panic when she realizes that the ghoulish woman is in the room, who begins cutting Lucie with a knife and smashing her head against the wall. Anna watches this and realizes that the ghoulish woman is all in Lucie’s head, that Lucie has been hallucinating this entire time. In a flashback we learn that Lucie had a chance to save another young girl who was also being tortured but when off instead, that the ghoul was Lucie’s guilt manifesting itself. The hallucination climaxes when Lucie slits her own throat and dies in the yard. Anna is left grieving over the loss of her friend and the consuming doubt that this family had anything to do with Lucie’s kidnapping and torture.

The next day Anna discovers a secret passage while cleaning the house, finding a full underground bunker beneath the house. Doubts that the family was innocent quickly evaporate when Anna finds a tortured woman in the bunker with metal bindings covering her eyes, ears and other parts of her body. Anna tries to comfort the scarred woman, bringing her up into the house and drawing her a bath. Anna tries to remove the metal bindings from the woman’s head, only to peel off skin from her scalp and causing more pain. The woman tries to kill herself and Anna tries to stop but before she can the woman is shot in the head by a stranger in the hallway. Suddenly the room is full of strangers dressed in black, demanding to know who Anna is and where the family members are. Anna is taken prisoner and locked in the bunker. She is finally interrogated by the cult’s leader, known only as Mademoiselle. Mademoiselle explains that their organization has been trying to find martyrs, those who see past this world and into the Other after they experience inhuman amounts of pain and suffering. She shows Anna pictures of those who they consider to be martyrs, and continues to explain that most people are only victims and not martyrs so they are forced to try their experiments time and time again. But they have found that young women are most susceptible to the transfiguration, so Anna is chosen as their next experiment.