Aux yeux des vivants

Today, directors Alexander Bustillo and Julien Maury returned to the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Films to introduce their newest effort, entitled "Aux Yeux des Vivants", which more or less translates in English as "Amongst the Living". Nearly everyone in the public was also present at this exact same spot a couple of years ago already, for the premiere of "À l'intérieur" a.k.a. "Inside", and thus we all knew to prepare for another potentially sickening and heart-wrenching horror film with explicit violence, disturbing atmosphere and nearly unendurable suspense. Bustillo and Maury are truly gifted and visionary young film makers who really understood the secret formula to genuinely terrifying and successful horror! They don't avoid any taboo subjects or sensitive themes and confront the viewers with their deepest fears and darkest nightmares. "À l'intérieur" entirely revolved on an extreme terror siege against a 9-months pregnant woman (with some of the cruelest torment sequences ever registered on film), while "Aux Yeux des Vivants" shamelessly handles about physically deformed children and shamelessly depicts uncompromising violence against innocent women and underage children. More importantly even, it's has been a very long time since I witnessed so many utterly intense and uncomfortable scenes of non-stop suspense. The usually always noisy and over-enthusiast crowd at the Brussels' Film Festival often turned very quiet and timid when gazing at some of the expanded and massively unnerving scenes where the young protagonists are stalked in their own houses. It's the last day of school before summer vacation and the troublesome trio Victor, Tom and Dan decide to leave early for a bit of exploring the countryside and committing a bit of random petty crimes like arson. They end up at the abandoned exterior film studios Blackwoods and witness how a masked figure drags a kidnapped woman out the trunk of a car and into an underground lair. We viewers already saw during the intro of the film that the studios might be the hideout place of what's left of a severely dysfunctional family. The boys return home and get punished for their acts by their parents, but that's nothing compared to the horror that awaits them later that night… The mysterious figure followed them home and plans to silence them forever. Strangely enough, quite a lot of the violence occurs off-screen, but still the suggestive terror and intense atmosphere is almost unbearable. I will, for example, always remember a specific scene featuring a ringing mobile phone and an icky clown's mask…Now that is what I call real horror! Bustillo and Maury are even so talented that they manage to make the oldest and most clichéd sentence in horror cinema history – "There is something under my bed" – still as petrifying as never seen before! And, for the sick puppies amongst you, don't worry too much about my remark regarding off-screen violence, as there still is plentiful of gore and bloodshed featuring on-screen as well. The three young protagonists give away remarkably stellar performances and they receive excellent support from more experienced French actors and actresses like Francis Renaud, Anne Marivin and Béatrice Dalle. Personally, I still regard "À l'intérieur" as slightly superior – mainly because the nature and motivation of villain is more realistic in this film – but "Aux Yeux des Vivants" is nevertheless also a must-see horror movie for the true and most courageous fans of the genre!

After watching Bustillo n Maury's Inside n Livid, i was very impatient to watch their Among the Living.

This movie was on my radar for a very long time. Finally saw this recently.

The early sequences are brightly shot and filled with some beautiful cinematography. The greenery, the lake, meadows, barn n the abandoned studio r all captured very well.

Another best part is the character development in the first half.

The movie works effectively because of its pacing and build up of suspense and frights.

I found the last 20 mins unpredictable n very tension filled.

The film is about kids at peril which is heavy for me but kudos to the makers for not showing any harm towards the kids.

I can't stand violence towards kids.

But thankfully most of the kills are offscreen, especially related to kids.

I disliked the scene where the father beats up his son.

The scene where the freak is on the top of a car staring the kid is downright creepy.

Another creepy scene is the time when the kid says that he doesn't have a clown.

Few flaws: How was the freak able to locate the addresses of all the three kids.

The pamphlet of the missing pet wud have got just one address.

Why no hunt for the main culprit?

Viewers may find shades of Hills Have Eyes, Stand By Me, Halloween, TCM, etc.

Three French school kids bunk off, burn down a barn then stumble across something horrific that will cost them and their loved ones dearly. I think the French are quite possibly at the forefront with horror cinema at the moment, this is a movie that I could imagine Rob Zombie wanting to make but it simply wouldn't be at this level. Here we have an interesting, though simple plot. There's gore, some pretty strong, but the film's strength for me was it's tension, reminded me of say John Carpenter's "Halloween". Very well filmed. I picked this up for a mere £1 from my local Poundland shop, what a fantastic bargain it turned out to be. I really don't understand the current 5.4/10 score. Perhaps many people don't like having to read subtitles!?

The plot is that three young boys bunk off school on the last day of term and get up to some very anti social behaviour to while away the time. Then they happen upon a disused film lot/studio. What they do not know is that they have discovered the lair of two refuges from the real world and this 'family' do not welcome visitors, unless of course they have abducted them.

What follows is a fairly good watch. There are a few moments where the kids do the stupid thing, but then it gets into a thriller stride and becomes a better calibre of film. Also if you get miffed over bad police procedures being portrayed in film then this will wind you up no end. If Le Gendarmerie really behaved like this then they would all soon be looking for low rung security jobs.

This is not a splatter gore fest though there is some blood letting and the main 'evil person' is not really 'creature feature' scary either. Where it does score fairly well is in the suspense and the acting. All three kids do a really good job. So it does have flaws but if you ust sit back for the trip then this is a fairly passable effort. Original title was 'Aux yeux des vivants' and it is in French with sub titles.

First of all I would like to say that I really love the work of Bustillo and Maury, they are really nice guys and really talented. Let's start with what is wrong and then with the good part :) I was really really disappointed with the rhythm of the movie... Seriously there must have been a huge problem during the writing of the script because there are many moments that are out of tempo, with the actors waiting in front of an immobile camera... It's almost unbearable. I think there has been a problem of preparation and nobody knew what to shoot on set. But there are many good points: the music, the photography, the acting (for a French movie it's exceptional), the "boogeyman". I am still looking forward new movies from these guys, but I hope these problems will be solved for the next one :)