Gueules noires

I had the chance to sit down and watch the 2023 French horror movie "Gueules Noires" (aka "The Deep Dark") here in 2024, and given my lifelong love romance with the horror genre, of course I needed no persuasion to do so. Sure, I had never heard about the movie, but that hardly mattered as it was a horror movie that I had not yet watched.

The storyline is pretty straightforward, though you need to sit through about an hour of writer and director Mathieu Turi trying to establish the characters, story and atmosphere. And truth be told, that was just way too long of nothing overly interesting happening, and the movie suffered terribly from that. And with a run time of 103 minutes, squandering 60 minutes just wasn't a smart thing to do.

Needless to say that given my very limited exposure to French cinema, then I wasn't familiar with the actors on the cast list. Though I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fair.

"Gueules Noires" might be worth checking out if you enjoy horror movies that include a subterranean setting, strange alien-like creature design, gore, and a good old fashioned creature feature.

The creature in the movie was definitely interesting. I liked the design, and it is always great to see practical effects on the screen in horror movies, as there is something aesthetically pleasing to watching practical effects over CGI effects.

Just a real shame that writer and director Mathieu Turi squandered a full hour on something that could have been done in a fraction of that time, because it was seriously wasting screen time. And the overall movie suffered from that part. If it had been done in a different way, a quicker way without wasting an hour, the movie would have been way more enjoyable to sit through.

Sure, I found "Gueules Noires" to be a watchable movie, though it is hardly a movie that I will return to watch a second time, as it just didn't have enough contents in the storyline to support a second viewing, and the fact that you have to sit through 60 minutes of virtually nothing but people milling about underground just didn't really count as enthralling entertainment to me.

The ending of the movie, however, left much to be desired. It was a laughable ending to say the least, not to mention a slap to the face of those audience members who stuck through 103 minutes of watching the movie.

My rating of "Gueules Noires" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I really wanted to love this, but the movie makes it impossible. It's one of these "Can you enjoy the ride?" deals. This would have been absolutely unforgivable if you'd paid cinema money to see it in a theatre, but in your living room it's a different proposition.

I thought I had stumbled upon a hidden indie horror gem for much of the movie. I'm old enough to be willing to forgive some jank in the practical effects (seriously, you feel like you're going to see the strings at any moment), especially when the movie is making up for it in so many other ways. I like the characters, I like the way it's shot and lit, I like the direction (except the framing of the antagonist in almost every shot where it appears) and the environments are great. It even seems like it's building up to something: some intriguing discoveries, some Lovecraftian details, some hints that there might be a clever denouement coming down the pipe. There is not. They really did not know how to end this.

Thematically, the fingerprints of As Above So Below are all over this. If you enjoyed that movie and you're willing to accept that you're getting more of that concept but in a package that is lower budget and mostly not as good, then congratulations: set your sights low, and you'll get more from it than you expect.

On the positive side, there were many points where I was reminded of Season 1 of The Terror, in that you have a bunch of tough men in a dangerous situation, with such daily stresses that you might expect a horror story to see them all tearing each other apart, but instead you get a lot of moments of genuine care and tenderness that make you realise that these men depend on kindness in order to survive. These moments of respect towards each other and even the animals were some of my favourite scenes. Just like The Terror, of course there's one agent of chaos in there and another figure of sufficient power to compel them forwards.

Too many directors look at the circumstances of their plot and think to themselves, "Hey! Darkness! Tight spaces! Stranded people! This is kind of like Alien!" and then barrel towards that idea without any subtlety, and unfortunately this is one of those. So, we're soon torn from the qualities of The Terror towards a box-ticking exercise of What Works (or What's Supposed To Work). Perhaps this is what they needed to do in order to get the film funded and made, but it does suffer for that. There were some ideas in here that could have been great if they'd stuck to the potential of their set-up and developed that. Given the midway reveal of what the miners are dealing with, I would have liked it to get a lot more weird and come to a very different ending.

Claustrophobic and disturbing medium-budgeted film packed with tension , shocking scenes , thrills , and chills. Factory boss Fouassier (Philippe Torreton) assigns a mining mission to Roland. Miners (Amir El Kacem, Thomas Solivérès, Diego Martín, Bruno Sanches) led by Roland are forced to take Professeur Berthier (Jean-Hugues Anglade) underground with them, to take samples for his measurements. Later on, they're exploring deep underground , the expedition gets horribly worse when they become lost , rockfall collapse and they don't find the dark way out . After delivering further into the cavern , things go awry. A landslide prevents them from going back up, and they discover a crypt from another time, unknowingly waking up a bloodthirsty creature.

Horror story filled with suspense, upsettling supernatural events, relentless terror, as well as lots of gore and blood . This frightening french movie concerns a group of miners, being trapped and chased into claustrophobic caves. Mathieu Turi (Meander) directs this scary horror film starring Samuel Le Bihan, winner of the French Cesar for Best New Actor in 1997 for Captain Conan, and being set in the depths of a coal mine in 1956. An horror film, taking place a chilling beginning, after that, the plot jumps forward 100 years, when a group of miners and a professor in search of samples become trapped 1000 meters underground; there they must find a way out and escape the sinister presence that lurks in the tunnels. Along with Samuel Le Bihan, the cast is completed by French Cesar winner Jean-Hugues Anglade (Queen Margot), Diego Martin (Rec 3), Amir El Kacem (Overdose), Tomas Solivéres (Mr. Henri shares a flat), among others.

This is one of the creepiest french horror movies of the last years and it contains thriller, chiller , cannibalism , blood and gore. The horror and gory moments are compactly made and fast-moving in which the brutal instincts of survival of the human beings are well shown. Ordinary terror film features an acceptable french cast , being shot on location in Wallers-Arenberg, Nord, France, Oignies, Pas-de-Calais, Bruay-la-Buissière, Angoulême and Morocco.

It packs a sinister, ghastly and horrifying atmosphere, full of eerie scenes by means of shaky camera carried out by cinematographer Alain Duplantier or with camera over shoulders and at times itself takes place from personal point of sight from cameraman .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Mathieu Turi, but nothing special because we have seen these terrifying situations many times before and even better filmed. Turi is a nice craftsman, a writer/filmmaker expert on terror films ,and he has directed a few movies and Shorts, such as: Meander (2020), Hostile (2017), Broken (2012), Sons of Chaos (2010). Well worth seeing if you like the terror films.

Other pictures dealing with this sub-genre about people caught and pursued in caves are the following ones : ¨Sub-human¨ (1972) by Gary Sherman with Donald Pleasence , Norman Rossington , David Ladd ; ¨What wait below¨ (1985) by Don Sharp with Robert Powell , Timothy Bottoms , Lisa Blount , Anne Heywood , Richard Johnson . And recently : ¨The cave¨ by Brian Hunt with Cole Houser , Piper Perabo , Eddie Cibrian , Rick Ravanello ; ¨The descent¨(2005) by Neil Marshall with Alex Reid , Natalie Mendoza , Shauna MacDonald , both them dealing with people caught into caverns and besieged , chased , attacked by packs of carnivorous , bloodthirsty , crawling creatures are waiting for them and finally ¨la Cueva¨(2014) by Alfredo Montero.

The atmosphere is bleak but the direction could've been better to make it a bit of slow pace/slo burn kinda deal but instead it just goes typical and there is nothing new to see here. The creature looks like a puppet, Idk when these movie directors are going to learn that not showing anything or less is also doable and builds up the tension even. Some lore would've been better, gory scenes don't have any impact.

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Usually, horror (I think it can be considered horror) movies don't have a big impact on me, but this one did. The plot, unlike most of horror movies, is pretty consistent and I really like it; it doesn't present the usual no-sense scenes typical of this genre.

The actors are really good and well chosen; I think the director did a good job too, also knowing that he's not that experienced (this is just his third big movie).

The only thing that in my opinion he could've made better is the sense of claustrophobia, maybe with some unconventional shots.

Overall, I really suggest it to people who like horror movies and in general I suggest it to everyone.