Sheitan

If you took the movies The Devil's Rejects, The Hills Have Eyes, Rosemary's Baby, and Psycho, and then stuck them in a blender, your end result just might be Sheitan, the second film from French Director Kim Chapiron.

The film revolves mostly around three men, who after a night of partying at the local discotheque, meet up with a young girl named Eve. Eve encourages the three friends (plus a girlfriend of the three men) to come to the countryside, to stay at her house. Shortly before arriving at the house the characters meet up with Joseph, the supremely creepy housekeeper to the rundown manor (played by French actor Vincent Cassel), where Eve lives. A very minimalist plot, but if this were a Hollywood movie, the housekeeper would have brutally murdered the guests one by one, and this would have been your run of the mill slasher flick.. But this is not a Hollywood movie, and it's not a slasher flick, and this is what makes Sheitan so refreshingly different. The film instead elects to take the viewer on a different path, which turns out to be infinitely more disturbing. Instead of becoming a blood bath, Sheitan starts out quite normally, but at the same time the viewer is left with the thought in the back of their head, "What is wrong with these people." From then on the film seamlessly balances black humor with a genuine creepiness, which continues up to the very end, and then brace yourself. The film closes with an extremely disturbing 15 minutes or so, of family dysfunction on a grand level.

The acting isn't especially well done, but is adequate for the story. The cinematography is pretty straight forward and typical, although the opening features some Mtv inspired, fast paced camera work, but the film still works well regardless of these two-weaknesses.

The only real weakness the film has, is as the credits roll, the viewer is still left with a lot of un-answered questions. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorite films have open-ended conclusions, but in Sheitan, some of the unanswered questions involve major plot points, and undoubtedly some viewers will be frustrated by this.

All in all, the film works quite well. If you're a fun of twisted, strange, disturbing movies, Sheitan is for you, if demented films aren't your thing avoid it, and go rent Bambi instead.

My rating 8 out of 10. (Truly different story, with a horrific ending, but too much Ambiguity )

In the Christmas Eve in the Styxx Club in Paris, the troublemaker Bart (Olivier Bartélémy) and his scum friends Thaï (Nicolas Le Phat Tan) and Ladj (Ladj Ly) meet the bartender Yasmine (Leïla Bekhti) and the costumer Eve (Roxane Mesquida), and after a fight of Bart in the nightclub, Eve invites the group to go to her house in the country. While in the road nearby the cottage, they are introduced by Eve to the weird shepherd and housekeeper Joseph (Vincent Cassel), whose wife is pregnant. Joseph feels a sort of attraction for Bart, and along the Christmas night, Joseph discloses his real intentions.

"Sheitan" is a weird and intriguing French horror movie, with an atmosphere of nightmare. The creepy and odd story has many points open to interpretations, very bizarre characters and situations, good performances of the cast and a gorgeous and sexy unknown French actress, Roxane Mesquida. I am not sure if I missed some point, since there are references to Eve, the serpent and the apple; Joseph and the new born child on the Christmas day. I liked this refreshing movie, in spite of the non-clear screenplay, but I do not dare to recommend it except for specific audiences. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Satã" ("Satan")

an excellent movie, but I think it has been misunderstood for the most part because it's full of references from ancient short movies from the collective kourtrajmé. IT has to be taken with second and maybe third degrees it's so funny and it's maybe vincent cassel's best performance. "on va aux grottes chaudes" will become cult. thank you Kim for that refreshing movie, I know you will be great in the future. kourtrajmé is an idea which didn't exist in France and allows to discover an other facet of french humour. It's a friends movie but you can see all the fun of this movie. it's so easy to criticize an original movie when you can't understand it. I think the world wasn't ready for Sheitan but I hope it will be soon because it's a pearl.

I saw Sheitan at the Melbourne International Film Festival and thoroughly enjoyed 26 year old Kim Chapitan's directorial debut.

Sheitan, meaning Satan in Persian, follows a group of 4 French kids on a roadtrip to an exotic vixen's country retreat on Christmas Eve. Upon arrival we greet the intoxicating local family who are a 'banjo shy of a Cahulawassee River ride', Deliverance style.

The buildup of tension is the film's greatest asset as we fall for the motley locals before all hell breaks loose in diabolical circumstances. There's enough lashings of nudity to titillate and a fantastic scene involving a placenta and the best use of SFX for a long time.

Great acting for a horror movie, including a superb performance by Vincent Cassell who proves he's as good as he is in front of the camera as he is behind it, a breathtaking performance by Roxane Mesquida and a blink and you'll miss it cameo by Monica Bellucci.

The art direction/ set design was perfect, the Provincial French manor where the kids end up is as beautiful as it is haunting. If clowns don't scare the hell out of me, dolls do, and Sheitan certainly pushes the right buttons whilst not resorting to 'Chucky' style offerings. A beautiful soundmix accompanies the pictures providing some of the best sound effects work seen for a fair while.

For a directorial debut, Chapiron is streets ahead of Eli Roth, again proving that the best horror directors aren't in Hollywood. As part of the emerging French group Kourtajme', Chapiron has greatly learned from some of his more famous contemporaries, namely Cassel.

So kudos to you Mr Chapiron. A few editing flaws stop me giving a higher score but a good 8 for a debut film is nothing to sneeze at, and announce yourself on the horror stage as a star of the future.

Unaware that this is a French film, I liked the sound of the premise, so when I put the DVD on was (pleasantly) surprised that it was in French, makes an interesting differentiation from the usual U.S. films of the genre.

"Sheitan" begins similarly to "Wolf Creek" in terms of a group of young adults just doing ordinary things, before the terror is unleashed upon them, so for some time it does not seem as though you are watching a horror / thriller - even though you know you are.

The film switches between ordinary (men and women wanting to hook up with each other), to plan bizarre (the arrival and subsequent "adventures" in the small town) to the shocking (everything that follows). Seriously, some of it is so absurd and it feels totally original.

The acting is very good. Vincent Cassel is unrecognisable as the creepy Joseph. Hottie Oliver Bartelemy is terrific as Bart, Roxane Mesquida is great as Eve, as is Leila Bekhti as Yasmine, and Nico Le Phat Tan as Thai and Ladj Ly as Ladj.

Some of the phrases that the young adults say seem a bit strange, but I don't know if that is because of poor translation (I can't speak French), but it did become a bit distracting at some points. Overall though, an odd, disturbing and highly entertaining film.