Instinto siniestro

The French are having a bit of a horror renaissance on their shores right now it would seem. After Haute Tension stirred up a tremendous hype a few years back, films like Malefique, Them, and Frontieres are doing the exact same. But none of them have received the word of mouth that this brutal film has. Inside is a damn mean film. I think it goes too far in its excess, but that's what you have to do to shock an audience these days. And shocking it is. Can you imagine what the angry mob of parents that wanted to ban Silent Night, Deadly Night would think about Inside? If you've seen it, you probably can imagine. If you haven't, I suggest giving it a spin. The less I say about the movie, the more powerful the experience will be. Inside is a film I will most likely never watch again, because I'm sure I will never forget it.

Of course I have seen films like MARTYRS, FRONTIER(S) and JACK KETCHUM'S THE GIRL NEXT DOOR but I have to say INSIDE was in a class by itself in terms of the ending, it was so bloody and violent I had trouble wrapping my head around what I just saw.

At first I wanted to hate the film and kick myself for buying it but later on I couldn't stop thinking about it, especially about the ending, very few films have had that effect on me, so in the end I thought maybe it was a good film, because I can't even remember the last film that had this particular effect on me, so I'll go ahead and say among all the graphic violence and all the intense moments there was actually a very unique experience.

If I could give good advice to all male horror fans, don't think of this as the ideal date movie, it might cause a few problems in your relationship.

'À l'intérieur' pulls off a surprising feat: it manages to take a concept that is, by its' very premise, provocative, and make it remarkably uninvolving. It performs this reverse alchemy by an unrelenting series of missteps, in both minor details and choices that the characters make, or don't make. Every time you get close to being sucked in by the action, you are suddenly ripped out of it by something that draws attention to the contrivance and implausibility.

Having said that, I still enjoyed the film due to the performance of the two leads and the remarkable, atmospheric direction. In fact, all of the actors were fine, doing their best with what they had to work with. In the end, this is a gore-fest, and at that the creators succeeded in spades.

I can't recommend this to anyone looking for an involving story or the kind of suspense that demands that you lose yourself in the film, but if you're looking for an 82 minute ride through a great looking charnel house, you could do a lot worse.

No doubt, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury are skillful directors but what's way more dominant here is the visual experience. The team responsible for the lighting does an amazing job, perfectly complemented by cinematographer Laurent Barès, a name that will be worth paying attention to in the future. The real edge are the gore effects though. The make-up department simply outdoes itself, as far as I'm concerned, this is as good as it gets. Also the performances by the two leads don't leave any room for complaints. This truly is an exceptionally well executed movie.

Still, it didn't work for me. As a scriptwriter, director Bustillo leaves a lot to be desired. First off, the movie has next to no plot. The setup and the climax are suitable for a flick like this, but there is really not much in between, leaving you utterly uninterested in where this is going, or why it is not going anywhere at all, ever. Nor does Bustillo really try to produce any character development. The protagonist is a depressive, bad-tempered woman who doesn't care about anything (including the child in her womb, making it little more then a plot device for reduction of her mobility) and the fact that her agony is justified doesn't make her any more interesting as a lead either. The antagonist on the other hand has about one line of informative dialog all together. Nevertheless, the death toll is over the top as Bustillo mindlessly throws one puppet after the other into the blender to be slaughtered within minutes to seconds without ever giving us the slightest reason to shed a tear for them. They really are just sacks of blood wandering up and down a set of stairs before tearing open, spilling their content on the walls. If nothing else, this fact makes the movie feel like a film-school experiment concerning make-up effects.

Now watching the last shot, I can't deny, at this level, the visual experience does to some degree substitute for the lack of script. With all the gore, the seas of blood, the perfectly composed lighting and shots, the agonizing atmosphere and generally the direction itself the movie has a certain poesy about it, which probably was the directors goal.

Verdict.

If you are a rather sensitive person, the visceral stimulation might blow your mind and you won't care too much about a plot all together. If you are a fan of horror flicks, the movie really has the gore and some uniqueness going for it. "Experienced" audiences might feel a bit too much to be desired. Nevertheless, an interesting experience.

This is a movie about every mother's worst nightmare; the fear of having your baby taken from you. A relatively taboo subject, that get's tackled masterfully in this flick. I was thoroughly surprised at how intense and beautiful this movie was, given that it largely takes place inside a house. This film is disturbing, violent and bloody but it isn't without artistic value. This is extreme art house cinema, with lots of symbolism.

The high- and low-key settings is used beautifully and really draws in the viewer and encourages you to think about what you see, while forcing you to concentrate about every scene. The colors are used so excellently, so subtlety and yet not so subtlety if you know about movie symbolism. It directly affects your mood and sets the tone perfectly, along with the intense and sad music. This is a movie, that makes you feel something that you don't want to feel, but that it reminds you, that you are alive.

Even though I didn't understand a word they said (watched it without subtitles), I understood everything as it unfolded right before my eyes. That is no easy task to accomplish for a movie, spoken in a language you do not understand. After waiting many years to watch this film, simply because I thought the plot sounded incredibly generic, my only regret is that I can't unwatch it. Not that I thought it was too extreme, but simply because I haven't watched a movie yet that holds up to this amount of artistic value, and certainly not in the horror genre. I have watched a few art house cinema, but I thought they were boring. I have yet to watch any of the other movies from the New French Extremism, but I can't wait to get started.

This is not a movie for the faint of heart or pregnant women. But if you like extreme, thought provoking horror and films, that isn't extreme just for the sake of controversy, then you're gonna love this. I will definitely buy this movie to add to my collection sometime soon.