Calvaire

The subject is not new: the you-take-your-life-in-your -hands -when -you-get-into -that-inn trick was the subject of Claude Autant-Lara's "L'Auberge Rouge" (1951)and of Hitchcock's "psycho" .One can also notice borrowings from Schoedsack/Pichel's "the most dangerous game" (1932) ,from "Texas chain saw massacre " ,from François Ozon's "Les Amants Criminels"(1996) .The atmosphere even recalls sometimes that of the director's compatriot André Delvaux's "Un Soir Un train" (1968).But the main influence is a French movie: "Barracuda " by Philippe Haïm starring Guillaume Canet and Jean Rochefort;Marc and Bartel strongly recall their characters.

Let's forget the hackneyed quicksands trick,which could not happen ,if the writers knew about Archimedes's theorem.All that remains is really spooky.The first part succeeds in building a tension ,without any special effect.The Christmas party,when the singer performs in front of a bunch of old ladies in an old people's home already leaves the viewer ill at ease.In the following sequences ,fear grows and never leaves you.Even the story of the dwarfs (did you notice the children dressed as little red riding hoods in the woods?) and Mark's song seem lugubrious,sinister.

Except for the old ladies and the nurse who takes care of them (played by an ex-porno star Brigitte Lahaie) ,and one or two peasant women on the farm,this is a male bestial atmosphere.Marc's cries look like animal screams .

Not for the squeamish.

This was the best film I saw at London's 2004 Frightfest, much better than the over-hyped but ultimately disappointing Haute Tension, the other French language horror entry.

Superficially this is the Belgian take on the "crazed hillbilly" sub-genre of Last House on the Left or Deliverance, but in it's mixture of horror and surreal humor this is closer to something like Roman Polanski's The Tenant. The portrait of an isolated society who lives without women is taken to its logical and often shocking extremes. There is a scene at the local bar which must rank among the strangest and most memorable set pieces in recent years. The film is very atmospheric and the cinematography is stunning. You can almost feel the chill of the winter forest it takes place in.

Hopefully Calvaire (it's English title was The Ordeal when I saw it) will get a proper release in English speaking territories, though I can see that this is a much more difficult sell than the derivative calling card exercise that was Haute Tension.

Saw this film as part of the Gala Opening for the Cinemuerte Horror Film Festival in Vancouver recently. I kinda knew what to expect from reading a description of the film before going in, but it still was quite the cinematic experience.

Suffice it to say, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend this film to anyone in my particular circle of friends (well, maybe a few), but the film had me mesmerized, and since I do enjoy dark cinema, I'd have to say I certainly enjoyed it for what it was. There were images and scenes in the film that stayed with me after, and it certainly had a noticeable effect on the audience attending. Some liked it. Some hated it. Some didn't enjoy the "pig squealing"...like one girl in the audience noted after the film had ended. (you'll understand more towards the latter-half of the film) Elements of "Deliverance", "Southern Comfort", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" are all here, with more dark humour involved. Dark, very dark humour.

The cinematography was incredible. You've never seen the wilderness shot to look so menacing, yet maintaining a strange, dread-filled beauty. And yet it also seems endless, as if civilization is nowhere near where the events in the film take place. I unconsciously wrapped my arms around myself during the movie, from both the tension in the film, and from feeling I myself was out there in the chill of the woods.

I won't go into the plot-line, since a few others already have, but this film gives good credence to making sure that if you go driving in the country, your engine has had a recent tune-up, and you've got plenty of gas in the tank. AND to make sure you're cautious about the seeming kindness of strangers...

Fabrice Du Weiz's thriller mines "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Deliverance" and "Straw Dogs", Still, it is unique enough and original enough in its cinematic eccentricities to be noteworthy.

A travelling showman (Laurent Lucas) finds himself in hostile territory when his van breaks down. A local jack-of-all-trades (Jackie Berroyer) helps him out, but is soon helping himself to Lucas's van, mind and body.

The film takes interesting, perverted turns and dishes the atmosphere thick. A fog-shrouded chase through the woods is almost surreal, and a fantastic dance sequence with hillbilly-like weirdos works a twisted treat and foreshadows a surplus of gloom and doom.

The violence is not plentiful, but the sense of threat is always present. Benoit Debie, who photographed Gasper Noe's IRREVERSIBLE, creates memorable, haunting images and makes expert use of the terrific locales.

A solid, oddball shocker, but overlong at times.

I first saw this in the early 2k on a dvd which I own.

Revisited it recently.

The plot - On a Christmas eve, a singer's van breaks down in a deserted and marshy region. The singer takes refuge in an inn run by a hospitable but creepy innkeeper who became psychologically upset with the villagers after his wife left him. The innkeeper offers to repair the singer's van as a token of brotherhood between professional entertainers.

The next morning when the singer tells the innkeeper that he is going for a walk, the innkeeper suddenly becomes paranoid and aggressive, warning the singer not to go into the nearby village.

The movie has tons of atmosphere but is very claustrophobic, surrealistic n horrifying at times.

The bar scene where outta blue the people starts dancing with one another is downright creepy.

The backwoods village without a single female character and not a single sane male character is an epitome of eeriness.