Sheitan

In the Christmas Eve in the Styxx Club in Paris, the troublemaker Bart (Olivier Bartélémy) and his scum friends Thaï (Nicolas Le Phat Tan) and Ladj (Ladj Ly) meet the bartender Yasmine (Leïla Bekhti) and the costumer Eve (Roxane Mesquida), and after a fight of Bart in the nightclub, Eve invites the group to go to her house in the country. While in the road nearby the cottage, they are introduced by Eve to the weird shepherd and housekeeper Joseph (Vincent Cassel), whose wife is pregnant. Joseph feels a sort of attraction for Bart, and along the Christmas night, Joseph discloses his real intentions.

"Sheitan" is a weird and intriguing French horror movie, with an atmosphere of nightmare. The creepy and odd story has many points open to interpretations, very bizarre characters and situations, good performances of the cast and a gorgeous and sexy unknown French actress, Roxane Mesquida. I am not sure if I missed some point, since there are references to Eve, the serpent and the apple; Joseph and the new born child on the Christmas day. I liked this refreshing movie, in spite of the non-clear screenplay, but I do not dare to recommend it except for specific audiences. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Satã" ("Satan")

Co-producer Vincent Cassel gave his handsome star Vincent Cassel (son of the late international star Jean-Pierre) a chance to essay the colorful character role of the repulsive gardener Joseph. Watching him mugging about in a scruffy-haired, ugly-toothed make-up provides most of the fun that is to be had from this peculiar but largely disagreeable diabolical French horror flick; there is little I hate more than the sight of young people waving their arms around in that silly 'hip-hop' fashion and, unfortunately, there is a lot of that going on in the first half of the film…but I must say that watching Cassel's baffled reaction to it was very amusing! Anyhow, three youngsters (each of a distinct race and creed) get in trouble during a Christmas Eve on the town until a beautiful girl (Roxane Mesquida of 2001's FAT GIRL fame) they meet in a disco invites them to spend the night at her farm on the outskirts; there they meet Joseph, his equally unattractive and very pregnant wife, a mentally-challenged relative, the town slut and several of her lusty pretenders. While there is not much gore to be had during the 94-minute running-time, the film-makers decided to substitute that with some disgusting visuals instead: a free-for-all nude swim in the hot waters of a cave; Joseph licking his pregnant's wife tummy; the latter breaking water in the corridor at the climax; an all-important eye-gouging and, worst of all, a completely irrelevant flashback to one of the youngster's one-night stand with (again) an unattractive girl in a tent where her private regions are represented as a table replete with unappetizing food! The events depicted in the film could well be a nightmare being experienced by that same unlucky youngster after being beaten up at the discotheque…or the would-be Satanic rituals revolving around the birth of Cassel's child might really be happening – but, frankly, one never cares enough about any of the characters to spend much time afterwards on sorting it all out. For what it is worth, Cassel's real-life wife Monica Bellucci appears briefly as a female vampire in the black-and-white film-within-a-film being shown on TV at one point!

I saw Sheitan at the Melbourne International Film Festival and thoroughly enjoyed 26 year old Kim Chapitan's directorial debut.

Sheitan, meaning Satan in Persian, follows a group of 4 French kids on a roadtrip to an exotic vixen's country retreat on Christmas Eve. Upon arrival we greet the intoxicating local family who are a 'banjo shy of a Cahulawassee River ride', Deliverance style.

The buildup of tension is the film's greatest asset as we fall for the motley locals before all hell breaks loose in diabolical circumstances. There's enough lashings of nudity to titillate and a fantastic scene involving a placenta and the best use of SFX for a long time.

Great acting for a horror movie, including a superb performance by Vincent Cassell who proves he's as good as he is in front of the camera as he is behind it, a breathtaking performance by Roxane Mesquida and a blink and you'll miss it cameo by Monica Bellucci.

The art direction/ set design was perfect, the Provincial French manor where the kids end up is as beautiful as it is haunting. If clowns don't scare the hell out of me, dolls do, and Sheitan certainly pushes the right buttons whilst not resorting to 'Chucky' style offerings. A beautiful soundmix accompanies the pictures providing some of the best sound effects work seen for a fair while.

For a directorial debut, Chapiron is streets ahead of Eli Roth, again proving that the best horror directors aren't in Hollywood. As part of the emerging French group Kourtajme', Chapiron has greatly learned from some of his more famous contemporaries, namely Cassel.

So kudos to you Mr Chapiron. A few editing flaws stop me giving a higher score but a good 8 for a debut film is nothing to sneeze at, and announce yourself on the horror stage as a star of the future.

This movie was hilarious! I loved the characters in this film all with their own goofy, perverted and dumbass college aged personalities. It seemed to me that I laughed throughout most of the film but there was still enough gore and horror to keep me interested in the horror side of it.

Another thing I can say about this movie was there was a lot of "WTF!" moments. I also have to add that this movie has the nastiest description of a woman's private parts I have ever heard and still shake my head in disgust and amusement at it even days later.

I don't want to go into it too much but this movie has become high up on my list for movies I would recommend to people. It is politically incorrect and has constant references to racism, but its more to add to the uneducated hillbilly type character that plays in the movie.

If you haven't seen this, watch it. It is one of the funniest horror films I have ever seen.

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Unaware that this is a French film, I liked the sound of the premise, so when I put the DVD on was (pleasantly) surprised that it was in French, makes an interesting differentiation from the usual U.S. films of the genre.

"Sheitan" begins similarly to "Wolf Creek" in terms of a group of young adults just doing ordinary things, before the terror is unleashed upon them, so for some time it does not seem as though you are watching a horror / thriller - even though you know you are.

The film switches between ordinary (men and women wanting to hook up with each other), to plan bizarre (the arrival and subsequent "adventures" in the small town) to the shocking (everything that follows). Seriously, some of it is so absurd and it feels totally original.

The acting is very good. Vincent Cassel is unrecognisable as the creepy Joseph. Hottie Oliver Bartelemy is terrific as Bart, Roxane Mesquida is great as Eve, as is Leila Bekhti as Yasmine, and Nico Le Phat Tan as Thai and Ladj Ly as Ladj.

Some of the phrases that the young adults say seem a bit strange, but I don't know if that is because of poor translation (I can't speak French), but it did become a bit distracting at some points. Overall though, an odd, disturbing and highly entertaining film.