User reviews

When Lucas Frantz (Axel Kiener) invites his friends to visit his hometown Village de Ruiflec, they head in two cars to spend the weekend. The driver Hugo Kerimba (Djedje Apali), Marion Valeyre (Ornella Boulé), Stan and his girlfriend Katia Brezinsky (Lucia Bruxelle) follows the car of Lucas, David Fontana (Cyrille Thouvenin), his girlfriend Lila Paredes (Bárbara Goenaga), Marion's estranged sister Emma Valeyre (Christa Theret) and Mathias (Jonathan Cohen) through the lonely winding road in a rainy night. Out of the blue, Hugo steps on the gas and overtakes the other car. Sooner, Lucas, David, Lila, Emma and Mathias find Hugo's car left on the road with the doors open and the passengers missing. They walk to Ruiflec to find shelter and a telephone to call the other group. But they learn that they are trapped in Ruiflec and an evil entity does not allow them to leave the village.

"Le Village des Ombres" is a promising, but not well developed story of a group of friends that travel together to spend a couple of days in a small village and they discover that they can never leave the cursed place, like in the lyrics of Eagle's "Hotel California ("Last thing I remember, I was running for the door. I had to find the passage back to the place I was before. Relax, said the night man, we are programmed to receive. You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!")

The acting is great, but the characters are poorly developed. The cinematography is very dark, but the pace is too slow. The art of the DVD cover is stylish. Unfortunately the plot is messy and does not work very well despite of the twists. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Vila das Sombras" ("Village of the Shadows")

Not a bad film. Nothing to do with a pop corn movie for Saturday evenings with a bunch of friends. It's actually an absorbing, intriguing but also unfortunately confusing feature, as we see today in many horror and crime movies. Twists within twists, and I don't tell about flashbacks within flashbacks...

I admit I am lost with all this. Perhaps I am too much cartesian. Or not smart enough.

This films begins in a way that make you think of Michael Mann's THE KEEP,where German soldiers in WW2 have to fight against an evil spirit. But the picture continues in a different direction. There are some lengths, but it's an interesting movie.

Try it.

I had the chance to discover this movie last week!

It was very well shot, very moody... I loved the camera movement... the feeling, the lightning... Creepy but not scary! It's a story full of mystery and surprises... Not a saw or Hostel movie (that i like) but it's more "classic" in the good way... Old fashioned fantastic... (like the Sixth Sense for example)

It's french but it reminds me the new wave of "Fantastic movies" from spain.

Nice story, good directing and a good casting!

It's a "you can't miss it" movie!

S.