5150, rue des Ormes

As a big fan of horror movies I try to see everything that is released. When I read the "5150 Rue des Ormes" plot I thought it was going to be a good "different" horror movie but now I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. I can picture the whole movie as a short story rather than a movie, some stories are not movie material, this one is a big example. Just because you have a creepy thriller it doesn't mean you can dress it with actors. The whole background story is good, the acting is good, the characters are interesting but all together in this movie are messy. There are many story lines that lead no-where, there were symbolisms bad used and many clichés. I wasn't scared about the story, it's a bad nightmare. Bad script, bad direction, good intention.

Picture the scene: There you are cycling along on a random street on your first day as a film student. The birds are chirping. The sky is blue. Life couldn't be any sweeter. Then suddenly. a puddy tat leaps out in front of you, causing you to brake. You're injured, and your vehicle and phone are bust. You head to the first house on your way, and a seemingly nice middle-age man tells you to wait outside while he rings for a taxi for you. He takes a while, so you poke your head round the corner to see what's going on.

Suddenly, a noise from upstairs startles you. Could that be... Someone shouting HELP? You decide, rather stupidly, to investigate... sneaking past the old dude in the process. On the second floor, you enter a bare room... and there in it, is a guy bleeding to death with a stab wound. You panic, and rush to get help... but are stopped by the home owner. Soon, the corpse of the stricken knife victim will be gone, and you'll take his place in those not-too comfortable conditions. Beatings, imprisonment and loud rock music await. Wanna get out of there? You better be good at chess...

The antagonist here is what's known as an 'everyday' psycho... he lives as a respectable citizen with his two daughters and wife, but his spare time is spent as a vigilante, killing those he regards as human trash e.g drug dealers and pedophiles. He is trying to train his oldest child to follow in his footsteps... without much success. His youngest is a mute, and his missus is nothing more than a put-upon doormat. And into their life comes this student. They all react differently to him... the psycho sees him as a potential protégé, the teenage girl sees him as a threat, the put-upon wife sees him as an opportunity to escape and the littlest daughter... well, she just stares blankly into space.

It's a great set-up, and the film captures every moment of our lead's terror and eventual descent into madness as a result of his enforced caging. It's also nice to see a fully fleshed-out enemy who has a legitimate motive for his murderous activities, and his family are well written too. A revelation near the end when we discover what's in his basement is especially horrifying. It's not perfect... there are tedious spots, and you get the feeling if he REALLY wanted to escape early on, he could... the only thing keeping him there is the screenplay. But for unique ideas, and a pretty consistent feeling of dread, this is more than than worth a watch. 6/10

I enjoyed watching the movie. But I expected this movie to be better.

The story tells the story of a young man and a conservative-obsessed man who leaves his family and goes to a different city to study filmmaking.

The obsessive person has certain principles, habits and obsessions. These are to kill people he finds guilty and bad, to leave an heir like himself, to collect the corpses of good and bad people, and to never lose in chess.

The movie had an interesting story, but it didn't have many interesting scenes. It was good to show how the young man was under psychological influence after the events he experienced. The story was solid!

This is one of the best horror or psycho thrillers that I have seen in a while and also one of the best Canadian/Quebecker movies in the last years. The movie is based on the novel by Patrick Senécal, his novels "Evil words" (in french: "Sur le seuil") and "7 days" (in french: "Les 7 jours du talion") have also been adapted for the cinema.

The story seems to be quite classic and simple: A young student has an accident with his bicycle in the new town where he wants to study as he is crossing a black cat. He wants to get help and rings at 5150 on Elm Street - the biggest mistake of his life! When he comes in, he hears somebody screaming in a room upstairs and he discovers that this guy is bleeding and suffering. But before the student can quit the scenery, he is discovered and imprisoned at the same place while the other poor guy doesn't survive. The young student is caught for months and his escape plans don't seem to work. He is filming his life in the small room and becomes somehow a member of the strange family: Jacques Beaulieu, the brutal, but very intelligent and charismatic father and taxi driver who is fighting the "evil one's": He tortures and kills old guys abusing children or young drug dealers. He is also a chess master and creates his "own" chess game in the basement: with dead bodies: his victims representing the black army and the good people (he is taking the bodies of dead social workers etc. from the cemetery) representing the white army. The young student has to prove that he belongs to the good or bad one's and finally Jacques Beaulieu offers a deal to the young guy: If he will beat him in a chess game and win with the black army, Jacques Beaulieu will accept and recognize that he was wrong and that the evil forces are stronger and liberate the student and so the games begin...

Maude Beaulieu, the shy and silent mother who is afraid of her husband but who doesn't have the courage or abilities to stop him. He is suffering every day and her husband has even beaten her when she was pregnant. The young student tries to become somehow her friend and to use her to escape, but Maude takes the right decision way too late.

Michelle Beaulieu, the eldest daughter is a sadistic, emotional and brutal girl and sometimes even more radical as her father, as she is making the young student suffer against the father's will. But when she has to prove that she is able to take the heritage of her father and to continue the battle against the evil persons, she isn't tough enough and becomes more and more disturbed.

Anne Beaulieu, the youngest daughter, is somehow retarded and doesn't speak a single word. She has been beaten by her father in her mother's womb and apart of her mother, no one shows or gives her any love and she doesn't have any friends. She hates her father who is making her mother and herself suffering and even tries to kill him while the father wants to get her out of the house and in an isolated and therapeutic kindergarten.

All those characters have their one personality and are brilliantly played. The movie is very close to reality and the brutal or horrifying scenes are rare, but when they come, they are really heavy and disgusting because they are so real. The movie has a dark atmosphere and every actor gives his best and his soul to this movie. A part of the family members, the main actor also begins to change and becomes more and more a strange freak who doesn't want to escape anymore - but who has found the sense of his life in wanting to beat the father and murderer in the final chess game as the armies of dead will finally be completed in a terrible way.

The end of the movie is really disgusting and disturbing, so expect the worst: Patrick Senécal wants to show the evil, dark sides of the people, the things that lie underneath the surface and he does it in a brutal consequence and nobody gets out of his created nightmare in a good way! That's what makes this movie intense and disturbing - and different from so many other movie of the genre. This one here is really innovating and hardcore and maybe not as easy to watch for everyone because of its strong relation to reality.

As you can read, this movie really surprised me and I think it's a genre highlight. The atmospheric horror grows with every minute of the movie and the grande finale is worth the wait! I just gave nine points because the basic story idea is quite simple and because the novel seems to be even more intense. Even if I told you now a lot about characters and story - the movie will still surprise and touch you! This movie should be more popular outside of Quebec too. So spread the words and have some fun with this movie: Welcome to Senécal's world of nightmares!

Don't read any longer: watch it!

"5150" certainly does not get enough recognition from what I've just seen, and it's probably because it simply isn't well known! I only happened to stumble across it when it came up on my Amazon recommendations and I actually bothered to click on it, then I read about it and thought it sounded quite good, especially after reading it was French, and I know that nobody does horror better than the French. And then I watched the trailer that blew me away, I knew it was something I'd love and so almost immediately bought it straight after that! "5150 Elm's Way" certainly didn't disappoint much. In fact, if it was more horror heavy than drama heavy, then I would consider it up their with the greatest of French horror. It also surprised me as well, and gave an absolutely compelling and gripping drama/horror.

I don't know why not many people have heard of this, maybe it's because of the rubbish title, I mean come on! "5150 Elm's Way" is a bit of a mouthful isn't it? Maybe if it had something catchier like "51 Elm's Way" or simply just "Elm's Way" it might've appealed to more audiences, but maybe I'm just picking a bit their. The fact is that this film deserves to be seen by a wider audience, I'm sure if people knew about this and gave it the time of day they would love it almost as much as I did! Now maybe it wasn't as dark as the trailer suggested, but it did give much more in the way of plot and screenplay that I anticipated for. Maybe, if "5150 Elm's Way" was glossed over in a brush similar to "Frontier(s)" we might've had a little horror classic on our hands.

But don't let the drama aspect put you off! In some ways it is much more of a positive, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how the film went deeper into the psycho family's character, when usually horror films like to ignore the villain's so we feel zero sympathy for them, here the film quite cleverly takes a different route by showering us with excellent characterisation on both sides, the righteous and the unrighteous both get equal screen time. It also means that instead of getting two dimensional villains, we get very human ones, which is extremely refreshing to see. We get to understand how their family works and why they are like how they are. I felt such sympathy for Maude, the mother and at times felt very teary for the family (don't worry I didn't let go!) Everything did seem like a drama pretending to be a horror film at times, but actually when the game of chess was introduced in the final 40-30 minutes, horrifying things did start to pick up, and its air of realism slightly went out the window, which I actually quite admired in a way. I also wasn't expecting Yannick's psychological torment to be quite as mind-blowing as it was. The directing sometimes looked as if the person changed. Instead of interesting family drama we got psychological horror that was really cleverly expressed. It was absolutely captivating to see Yannick change and become obsessed, and also to see how he's affected their family.

Some scenes such as when Yannick plays chess and when he starts seeing "The Shining" styled blood, are marvellously done and it really helps for the audience to get into his character. "5150 Elm's Way" can often be thrilling as well! The film has you cheering for Yannick to get out all the way, and you do start to notice the complex bonds changing, giving us much, much more than a horror film. The acting was also very good, and very realistic. They looked like a normal family, so it was easy to relate, and Yannick also didn't make too many frustratingly stupid decisions like you see in almost every survival-based horror film.

In the end. "5150 Elm's Way" is more of an extremely dark drama than a horror film, although it does step into horror territory towards the end, and it also isn't afraid to shock like most horror films, it has no boundaries. It is brilliantly written and shows beautifully promising directional flourishes. It's also completely thrilling and captivating to watch, with a very clever ending that makes you wonder who really has won. "5150 Elm's Way" is one of the best psychological films, I've seen and is very nearly a 10/10 masterpiece.