Thursday, October 22, 2009

Inside (À l'intérieur)



(2007)


Inside can be used as additional evidence that France is the new Japan of shock horror. It should really come with a bright warning label that reads “DO NOT WATCH IF YOU’RE PREGNANT, EVER HAVE BEEN PREGNANT, THINKING ABOUT GETTING PREGNANT, SQUEAMISH OR MENTALLY UNSTABLE IN ANY WAY.”

Returning home from the hospital, following a car accident that killed her husband, Sarah settles in for a quiet evening, understandably depressed and very, very pregnant. A strange woman knocks on her door asking to use the phone as she’s been in a car accident. Sarah, not falling for the oldest trick in the book, lies and tells her to go elsewhere as her husband is sleeping. “Your husband’s not sleeping”, she replies, “he’s dead”. A few minutes later she appears at her window in full blown Michael Myers mode. For (great!) reasons that are later revealed, the mystery woman will stop at nothing to carve the baby right out of Sarah’s body.

If you took the pregnancy away from the film you’d be left with an above average gory home invasion movie along the lines of The Strangers or Don’t Answer the Door. But the threat to the fetus makes the violence all the more difficult to watch. They actually show the baby’s reaction from the womb as Sarah is being attacked. It could arguably be dismissed as a cheap trick but boy does it ever work.

Like Martyrs (which I absolutely refuse to shut up about), Inside is a beautifully filmed, intelligent splatter fest. The use of heartbeats, feedback and noise is very innovative and effective. Aside from a few inexcusable dumb horror film decisions made by some of the characters, this is a very solid slice of gruesome.

10 comments:

DKC said...

Great. Yet another JSP review of a movie I will most likely not watch. At least he didn't call me out in this one.

Although I expect that forthwith.

JPX said...

This sounds great! You're really discovering some gold this year. I think you're correct, the French are the new Japanese horror. It must be all the repressed rage.

DCD, write more reviews!

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Catfreeek beat me to this one too last year:

http://horrorthon.blogspot.com/2008/10/lintrieur-inside.html

Miko (RIP) pointed out in the comments that a firearm in the home would have solved everything and I can't argue with that!

Oh don't get me started DCD, ya big wuss. You wouldn't last 5 minutes with this movie!

Catfreeek said...

Enjoyed your review and I'm glad someone else is finally watching this ultra violent French shock horror besides me.

Now the question is, are you going to give "Frontiers" a go too?

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Yeah, Frontiers is on the list and I suppose I should watch Them also.

DCD, write more reviews!

Catfreeek said...

Yes you should :)

Whirlygirl said...

I'm looking forward to seeing this one. I had planned to last year. I forgot about it until I came across my copy a week ago.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Haha Whirlygirl, beat you to it!

*arranges hand in L-shaped position above forehead*

Octopunk said...

When did this French thing start, anyway? Was it Aja's High Tension?

Nice review, Jeeohnny.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

On Wikipedia there's a list of French horror movies and there's only 24. It goes as far back as 1926's House of the Fall of Usher. A few on the list are not even horror! So French horror is very rare and yes, the current wave seems have been triggered by High Tension.

Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse
Baby Blood
Blood and Black Lace
Blood and Roses
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Daughters of Darkness
Eyes Without a Face
Faceless (film)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928 French film)
Fear(s) of the Dark
Female Vampire
Frontier(s)
Gritos en la noche
Haute Tension
Histoires extraordinaires
Inside (film)
Martyrs (film)
New French Extremity
Las Noches del Hombre Lobo
Nosferatu the Vampyre
Oasis of the Zombies
Sheitan
Silent Hill (film)
Them (2006 film)

Malevolent

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