Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse

Directing debut for Juan Bunuel, son of revered filmmaker Luis Bunuel, is a disturbing but hollow, unsatisfying thriller about a haunted house in the French countryside. Married couple with two kids move into the dilapidated manor, and are rather slow to discover there are spirits afoot and they want the humans out. Film wasn't exhibited Stateside for years, though one can imagine Steven Spielberg seeing this and getting the idea for his production "Poltergeist"; the films share similar story points, though this one has no humorous undermining. Some spooky moments and a haunting finale can't really make it worthwhile. Ultimately, it's just a little too heavy and dense. *1/2 from ****

Au Rendez-Vous de la Mort Joyeuse was the directorial debut of Juan Bunuel, son of Luis. It was a most auspicious debut and one can only wonder what has kept Bunuel minor from the eyes of discerning film fans. This is an unusual, slowly paced, but deeply disturbing horror film that delves into some very dark corners of the human psyche. A prime candidate for rediscovery on DVD.

You may not have known that Luis Bunuel had a son, Juan Luis, and that he too had a filmmaking career.

Any mystery as regards the source of this ignorance would be instantly dispelled by a viewing of his rare, early '70s haunted house movie, "Expulsion of the Devil" - which also features an appearance by a young Gerard Depardieu.

You see, on the evidence of this film, the younger Bunuel is deservedly obscure. It is possibly the dullest haunted house movie I have ever seen.

The set-up is typical: a family move in to some old house and spooky stuff starts to happen. Well, it's not really that spooky, at least not the way Bunuel Jr. shoots it: two or three times some stuff starts flying around.

I understand that French movies are more concerned with mood than plot. This one has no mood. Juan Luis couldn't direct to save his life.

There are some weird developments later in the movie: a camera crew comes to stay, and apparently, so do some primary school-aged girls. What are they doing there? It might have been explained, or it might not have been. Writing this sentence will be the last energy I ever expend thinking about this movie.

This is a clunky and rather slow, but mildly interesting French take on the family moves into a haunted house genre. The special effects which largely consist of furniture sliding around are strickly sub-Exorcist, but the film has a few quirky touches which keep the proceedings from being too predictable. Worth a look, if only because French horror films are such a rarity, but this doesn't hold a candle to the similarly themed The Haunting.

An extraordinary first film from Juan Bunuel, son of Luis, and if if does not completely succeed it is certainly a very bold effort. A variation on the old dark house film, the creepy and violent otherness here is of the poltergeist variety, and very violent and creepy it is. Lots of children here and one young girl (the daughter) who may be the main cause of things going very big bump in the night, and the day. This central character is played most convincingly and beautifully by leading model of the time, Yasmine Dahm. Her performance is perfect but the director does not seem to have given the same attention to all and some of the acting seems rather hammy, even a young Gerard Depardieu seems to be over acting, but then, dare I say, this would not be the last time for that! There are several dark sequences and I feel i might have scored this higher had it been a better print.