Inside - À l'intérieur

Just one knifing/ stabbing or shooting after another with lots of blood and a decent story. There are a few scenes that made me look away and I can tolerate a lot of violence. YOU WERE WARNED.

A mother-to-be is menaced by a strange woman who traps her inside her own house. What does the stranger want? Why, her unborn baby, of course. This film received a great deal of praise from the horror community, but when I watched it shortly after it's U.S. DVD release, I didn't think it was worthy of any of it. Since I blind bought it back then, I figured I might as well give it another chance. Alas, this film didn't improve at all upon my second viewing. French horror seems to be all the rage among fellow genre fans these days, but where films like Haute Tension and Martyrs succeed at being more than envelope-pushing for the sheer hell of it, Inside fails miserably.

I'm a fan of Béatrice Dalle. She's fantastic in 37°2 le matin, and her menacing performance is easily the best thing about this film. To be frank, it's the only thing this mess has going for it. Alysson Paradis is the victim, but pregnant or not, the film didn't give me much of a reason to invest in her character. Clearly, this kills any potential suspense factor. Another suspense vacuum is the rampant idiocy on display here, most notably from the police. A cop's two partners just disappeared into a dark house where gunshots emanated from. Am I to believe that the moron would head into the house with his latest arrest handcuffed to his wrist, all without calling for backup? Then there's the thing with the circuit breaker, and it's just absurd. I also didn't care for the inside shots of the baby at all. I thought it was an awful idea, made all the more annoying by the obvious CGI and ridiculous expressions the baby would make. Was I supposed to be disturbed whenever this popped up? If anything, it was amusing that the directors thought this would work in any way, shape or form.

Now, onto the film's sole reason for existing... The gore effects are wet and brutal. They're not always convincing, but they're very graphic. And that's all there is to Inside. Honestly, this thing is basically just one big excuse for pushing the envelope with gore effects and attempted shock factor. There is no depth, no suspense, no scares... It's a revolting bore. I'm surprised by how well-liked it is. This belongs at the bottom of the barrel with other French drivel such as Sheitan and Frontière(s). The only true horror that comes from watching this is realizing that something so bad is actually being praised to the heavens.

'À l'intérieur' pulls off a surprising feat: it manages to take a concept that is, by its' very premise, provocative, and make it remarkably uninvolving. It performs this reverse alchemy by an unrelenting series of missteps, in both minor details and choices that the characters make, or don't make. Every time you get close to being sucked in by the action, you are suddenly ripped out of it by something that draws attention to the contrivance and implausibility.

Having said that, I still enjoyed the film due to the performance of the two leads and the remarkable, atmospheric direction. In fact, all of the actors were fine, doing their best with what they had to work with. In the end, this is a gore-fest, and at that the creators succeeded in spades.

I can't recommend this to anyone looking for an involving story or the kind of suspense that demands that you lose yourself in the film, but if you're looking for an 82 minute ride through a great looking charnel house, you could do a lot worse.

This is a movie about every mother's worst nightmare; the fear of having your baby taken from you. A relatively taboo subject, that get's tackled masterfully in this flick. I was thoroughly surprised at how intense and beautiful this movie was, given that it largely takes place inside a house. This film is disturbing, violent and bloody but it isn't without artistic value. This is extreme art house cinema, with lots of symbolism.

The high- and low-key settings is used beautifully and really draws in the viewer and encourages you to think about what you see, while forcing you to concentrate about every scene. The colors are used so excellently, so subtlety and yet not so subtlety if you know about movie symbolism. It directly affects your mood and sets the tone perfectly, along with the intense and sad music. This is a movie, that makes you feel something that you don't want to feel, but that it reminds you, that you are alive.

Even though I didn't understand a word they said (watched it without subtitles), I understood everything as it unfolded right before my eyes. That is no easy task to accomplish for a movie, spoken in a language you do not understand. After waiting many years to watch this film, simply because I thought the plot sounded incredibly generic, my only regret is that I can't unwatch it. Not that I thought it was too extreme, but simply because I haven't watched a movie yet that holds up to this amount of artistic value, and certainly not in the horror genre. I have watched a few art house cinema, but I thought they were boring. I have yet to watch any of the other movies from the New French Extremism, but I can't wait to get started.

This is not a movie for the faint of heart or pregnant women. But if you like extreme, thought provoking horror and films, that isn't extreme just for the sake of controversy, then you're gonna love this. I will definitely buy this movie to add to my collection sometime soon.

First thing: If you don't like blood or gore, stay far, far away from this. Also, don't watch this if you're pregnant. Really.

This is one hell of a horror movie, quite literally. What you need to know about this is that there's a pregnant woman in serious peril. And by peril, I mean, torture, gore, revenge, lots of blood, death and... scissors.

Like Irreversible, Sheitan, Ils and Maléfique, "Inside" is yet another proof that the best horror these days are coming from Europe (France, Spain and Germany specially). Filmed with what appears to be a micro-budget, most of the action occurs in a small, two-storey house. However, the talent of those involved with the film make this irrelevant.

One important thing about this film is that is very good at maintaining tension and suspense, something that very few gory movies do. You know you're watching something terrible, but you can't look away for curiosity's sake.

Many interesting details in the movie, such as the victim's house number, black cats and overall a feeling of dread and death. Worth watching twice for catching these pearls.

Anyway, as a last minute warning, THIS IS VERY violent and graphic. The ending was great and haunting, and with the exception of a scene or two that didn't really make sense and thus seemed somewhat out of place, this is a solid horror and fans of the genre won't be disappointed.

6/10