ELSE is a French-Belgian body-horror chamber film with a massive evolutionary bent, about a recent hook-up-turned-couple - introvert Matthieu Sampeur and flighty one-night-stand Edith Proust - forced to cohabitate in his small apartment when a strange virus forces the world population into lockdown.
At first, it seems like just another disease the planet will eventually recover from - a group of neighbours are heard joyously counting down to the quarantine and the end of their freedom - until it becomes apparent that people (and basically all lifeforms) are merging into their surroundings if they stay sedentary and the entire planet and everything on it is undergoing a seismic evolution.
This was made on a modest budget but the practical and digital effects are both abundant and exceptional as the film goes on (and possibly trippy, if that is your thing). It is almost entirely filmed within the confines of the couple's apartment as the world outside and inside permanently evolves with brief but increasingly opaque views out the windows, communication through the vents with unseen neighbours (whose vocal cadences change ominously through subsequent interactions), snippets of newscasts and internet articles before the power runs out, a brief appearance by some military men at the door, and a couple of drones seen late in the film after characters venture out to escape the warping confines of the building.
Basically, this is an apocalyptic tale told from a personal, romantic perspective of two people who only have each other for however long that lasts.
Director and co-writer Thibault Emin made three short films between 2006 and 2008 and the middle one, also called ELSE, is the basis for this version 17 years later, and it is an impressive feature debut, one of those arthouse science-fiction movies where you sense the director's influences vaguely because they're not plastered verbatim on the screen, and he delivers something largely unique and self-contained with a big idea at its core.
At the TIFF festival premiere in 2024 (after which Infirst submitted this review only to have IMDb inexplicably REJECT it), Emin acknowledged some of the films and filmmakers who inspired him. Shinya Tsukamoto was one who crossed my mind by the conclusion (though not entirely in the way one might expect from seeing his name mentioned) and he confirmed that along with some other picks both surprising and not, but again there is little direct appropriation beyond some vibes and ELSE unfolds at its own pace and builds its own unique world, literally. In fact, the only aspect I personally did not fully latch onto was the relationship between the couple (both played by actors apparently known more for their stage work than film roles), but that was largely because their relationship - while really well-played in all of its awkwardness - is not one that I would find appealing in real life, but that's on me and your mileage will obviously vary.
This felt like the kind of tale you might have read, sans dialogue; in a magazine like Heavy Metal back in the day, and I am seriously keen to see what this guy can do with a larger budget if he goes that route, or if he decides to revisits the bizarro world he leaves behind here.
