Gueules noires

First, maybe a little word on the original French title "Gueules Noires", which is very different from the international title "The Deep Dark" and can roughly be translated as "Black Snouts". It refers to how the hard and devastating work in the mining industry makes every person equal. Regardless of what race you are, or what skin color you have, working underground in the mines makes everyone's face black with dirt.

"The Deep Dark" is a prime example of the type of horror in which the French are specialized. Raw, sinister, unpleasant, and relentless terror with exclusively unsympathetic characters and without the slightest bit of comic relief. Pure and genuine horror, in other words, and I - for one - love it (despite several flaws).

In the 1850s, in Northern France, 27 miners tragically die when the shafts collapse shortly after they made an archeologically groundbreaking but deeply disturbing discovery. 100 years later, in the same mine, a versatile group of miners is forced to accompany an arrogant anthropologist down the shafts, because he's convinced the deep underground layers hide evidence of a previously undiscovered civilization. They find a new civilization, all right, but its deity turns out to be a terrifying and invincible monster.

The script of "The Deep Dark" certainly isn't without holes or massively implausible plot elements, but you simply got to love the grim atmosphere and claustrophobic tension that writer/director Mathieu Turi creates. And the monster, of course! I have seen thousands of horror movies, and I guarantee the monster of this film is one of coolest and most jaw-droppingly astounding ones of the last two or three decades. The creature is also as violent and bloodthirsty as it looks, which results in a handful of excessively gruesome deaths and make-up effects that are not meant for squeamish viewers. Highly recommended to true horror junkies.

PLOT: A group of coal miners are offered attractive bonus in return for escorting a scientist deep into an underground cave where the group encounters a terrifying mythical being.

While browsing Prime Video library, I stumbled upon "Gueules Noires" ("Black Faces" in English) and found it to be an engaging horror story that was fairly captivating despite its script flaws. The themes draw from a mix of survival horror, mythology, fantasy, and adventure, and backed with good technical execution, make the film a worthwhile viewing. Standout feature has to be excellent camerawork, given that filming had to be done in confined spaces and low-light environments. This added to the tension and in a claustrophobic environment, enhancing the horror experience. Lensman has made excellent use of clever lighting and shakycam to create tension. Editing is tight and never dilutes the tense atmosphere. There are no comic relief or other filler moments in the entire runtime. Once the dark adventure begins, you only get to see the light after the climax. Screenplay stays relevant throughout the film's length with every sequence contributing to plot's speedy progression. Actors too have delivered commendable performances. The dialogue is succinct and impactful, adding to the film's intensity.

The film obviously suffers from budgetary constraints. With a fatter wallet, better special effects and sets could have been arranged. While the script could have been stronger, the film compensates with other elements. Unlike most horror films, this film has tied up loose ends effectively and viewers won't be left with unanswered questions in the end. The emergence of the mythical being and its purpose are all well-explained in the end. The movie concludes with an ambiguous ending, allowing viewers to interpret it in their own way, which I liked a lot.

I am impressed with French Director Mathieu Turi's ideas and work and look forward to watching his upcoming projects.

RECOMMENDED.

The French horror industry provided many movies during the 2000's and early 2010's and suddenly more or less disappeared, at least in France, and the directors moved away to Hollywood ( Alexandre Aja, Xavier Gens, Eric Vallette ) because of bigger budgets at their disposal and the opportunity to increase their popularity; bigger budget but also pain the ass producers on their back. This movie offers the peculiarity to show a first part which looks like a social drama, a semi documentary about pit coal workers, underground miners, during the fifties, a plot speaking of racism...And suddenly, after the first part, it suddenly turns into a horror film, as we have seen before in the American and also some French industry stuff. Good directing, acting, production design - which surprised me, especially in the first part, with Philippe Torreton whom I did not expect to see in a horror film. I like Samuel Le Bihan, in a charismatic leader role, tough, rough, fair, the same kind of character - or more precisely personality - he had in TOTAL WESTERN. Good French horror film which also made me think of Neil Marshall's THE DESCENT. But for me it is so surprising that there is NO FEMALE character in this film, in a period where strong lead women characters, even in actioners, are galore. Galore. It would not have surprised me to have here a woman sent among men, into the mine, fighting alone against the "thing".

I had the chance to sit down and watch the 2023 French horror movie "Gueules Noires" (aka "The Deep Dark") here in 2024, and given my lifelong love romance with the horror genre, of course I needed no persuasion to do so. Sure, I had never heard about the movie, but that hardly mattered as it was a horror movie that I had not yet watched.

The storyline is pretty straightforward, though you need to sit through about an hour of writer and director Mathieu Turi trying to establish the characters, story and atmosphere. And truth be told, that was just way too long of nothing overly interesting happening, and the movie suffered terribly from that. And with a run time of 103 minutes, squandering 60 minutes just wasn't a smart thing to do.

Needless to say that given my very limited exposure to French cinema, then I wasn't familiar with the actors on the cast list. Though I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fair.

"Gueules Noires" might be worth checking out if you enjoy horror movies that include a subterranean setting, strange alien-like creature design, gore, and a good old fashioned creature feature.

The creature in the movie was definitely interesting. I liked the design, and it is always great to see practical effects on the screen in horror movies, as there is something aesthetically pleasing to watching practical effects over CGI effects.

Just a real shame that writer and director Mathieu Turi squandered a full hour on something that could have been done in a fraction of that time, because it was seriously wasting screen time. And the overall movie suffered from that part. If it had been done in a different way, a quicker way without wasting an hour, the movie would have been way more enjoyable to sit through.

Sure, I found "Gueules Noires" to be a watchable movie, though it is hardly a movie that I will return to watch a second time, as it just didn't have enough contents in the storyline to support a second viewing, and the fact that you have to sit through 60 minutes of virtually nothing but people milling about underground just didn't really count as enthralling entertainment to me.

The ending of the movie, however, left much to be desired. It was a laughable ending to say the least, not to mention a slap to the face of those audience members who stuck through 103 minutes of watching the movie.

My rating of "Gueules Noires" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I wanted to watch this on a big screen when it released in May 2024 but there was only one show of 11 pm and that too nowhere in Bandra bt far off in town side.

Missed it cos of my early morning gym training duty.

Saw this last nite on Amazon Prime.

I enjoyed this movie.

It has one of the coolest monster, terrifying n intimidating.

There is ample amount of tension n the kills r gruesome.

The best part is that inspite of the movie's entire setting taking place in a mine and an even deeper cave, without any sunlight or artificial light, one can make out wots going on.

No hand held shaky cam stuff n no flickering lights.

Wish they had shown more of the monster's past.