Maléfique

I didn't feel that this film was quite as clever as it seemed to think it was but enjoyed it nevertheless.

It is original, although reminded me a little of two other French films, Vidocq and City of Lost Children, mostly for the colouring but also for the edgy quality of the close ups of the characters.

Set in a prison cell but do not let this put you off, this film seemingly goes further than many a multi locationed blockbuster.

Always interesting, with the perennial 'Black Arts' well to the fore and very good characterisation making some only too believable!

Scary with some gore this is well worth a viewing.

Watched this French horror film last night and pretty much liked it. The whole movie takes place in a prison cell with basically three prisoners who find a hand written journal in a wall from a serial killer that had escaped the prison 20 years earlier, somehow without leaving his cell. As they look through the diary, they discover it delves into the black arts and commands that might be their way out of the cell and to freedom. What they find out, is something completely different, and horrifying to say the least. I like low-budget horror films, that deliver the goods in a fairly quality way, and tell a good story. This movie does just that, despite taking a while to get going. The result and the horror they unleash is very interesting to me, and I enjoyed the ride. Not a lot of gore, but that wouldn't fit the story, although the gore it has is pretty good.

First of all - I hate french movies. I dunno why, but I simply can't stand them it seems. I didn't like "Brotherhood of wolves", I was bored by "Delicatessen", I slept through "Taxi". So one can say that watching "Malefique" was a big step for me - especially because it was praised high by people who liked all the mentioned movies.

But I have to admit, this time they where absolutely right. "Malefique" has a very gripping atmosphere and grabs the viewer from the first second. The characters are believable (but not likable), the setting is really claustrophobic and the story has enough twists and turns to keep even the most cynical horror fan guessing what's coming up next.

There's even enough splatter to keep the gore hounds awake and - absent from a surprise ending that's not exactly surprising - the movie is mostly original and doesn't copy anything you've ever seen before. Also very interesting is that - even if the whole movie plays in a prison - you won't get the usual clichés.

So with "Malefique" and "Haute Tension" (wich also is great but in a totally different way) it seems that french horror is again something to keep your eyes on.

Great Movie 8 out of 10

Maléfique is a very interesting movie. It is an unholy alloy of triumphs and failures. The central concept is great, three inmates with bizarre personalities are joined by a fourth (who the audience identify with) and they try to escape from their cell using a book of magic that they find within the walls of the cell.

The atmosphere is well-woven, it reminds me of reading about the prison stay of Edmond Dantes' in the Château d'If (prior to becoming the Count of Monte Cristo). The director sets up the feeling that the characters are tied to the cell, particularly the character we are meant to identify with (Carrère - a white-collar criminal whose crime is not specified, but it's obliquely suggested might be fraud). On one occasion Carrère dithers when leaving the cell for exercise and has the cell door shut on him; we never leave the cell, the claustrophobia is unbroken. There are also no shots of the prison outside the cell, and the view through the bars is a longing sunset over a generic prison wall. So even though the film appears to be very modern, it has a very old world feel of incarceration.

The characters are intriguing. We have Marcus, a violent pre-op transsexual who plays an abusive mother to Pâquerette (French for Daisy) a heavily retarded young man. Pâquerette likes to eat everything he finds beautiful, and unfortunately this included his baby sister, hence his current predicament (I like this comment on internalisation, very primitive). Lasalle is a withdrawn, possessed elderly man, in for brutally murdering his wife.

The central message of the movie is that your desires will annihilate you, and there's a ritual that goes with that. I think that's what disturbs me the most, seeing people destroying themselves ritualistically. It has a real life ring to it. The quite simple soundtrack backs this up well, every step deeper into the quicksand is accompanied by the dull ringing of a gong. I'm actually hearing the gong now every time I do something self-destructive.

I think one of the plot problems is that the ends of the characters don't really reinforce the message consistently, particularly with Carrère, also the concept of the book seems to alter throughout the film, not in terms of a successive revelation either. I also think that some of the images we see are a bit amateurish, more by design than execution, such as the famous "vagina eye", and the sodomy of Lasalle, for me, totally hollow images.

At the end the movie it feels like the director is in a rush to get it over with, and some things don't seem logical, for example we've been clumsily led to believe different things about Carrère's child. This doesn't change the fact though that what we have here is that rare bird, a "pure" horror movie. There is no comedic dross or genre segueing, like Cube (1997/Natali), the obvious movie to compare it to, it's a total immersion experience, where you feel as if you are in the cell with the characters. This last comment I make about it being a "pure" experience I think is something others have mentioned as well so that is a fairly unanimous point.

On a personal note my favourite part of the film is when Lasalle talks about his past as a librarian. He very vividly describes a scene where he goes to work one day and sits down in his usual place in the centre of a room where all the books are arranged in a circle around him. The books seem to be chanting to him that he will never contain their knowledge. This prompts Lasalle to go insane. That really is the problem with an obsession with understanding and knowledge. It's something I myself have felt.

One final comment is that two of the quite well-received comments on the board have confused the characters' names. To convince yourself that Lasalle is the older librarian character, simply click on Philippe Laudenbach's page and you will see he was born in 1936.

Low budget French horror that nearly succeeds, but disappoints in the end.

How many films do?

At times excellent characterization mood. Suspense are tightly built up. But more depth would have made this movie great. Many of the characters lives and motivations are left unexplained. Why is he in prison? Why does his wife want to leave him?

There are some laurels for this movie. The one set for most of the movie, the cell is an excellent idea. Some bizarre moments involving limbs and sodomy.

Would you watch it again probably not.