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France hasn't exactly got the richest history in horror cinema, but the nation's definitely making up arrears since the new Millennium. Films like "Malefique" and "Ils" rank amongst the greatest genre accomplishments since the year 2000, and the last couple of years France particularly seems to specialize in primitively barbarous and uncompromisingly graphic gore-flicks. Alexandre Aja's stupendous "Haute Tension" launched this trend in 2003 and undeniably influenced a whole generation of ambitious and bloodthirsty young filmmakers. So far 2007 is the best French horror year ever, with the cruel & sick "Frontière(s)" – about a confrontation between youthful thugs and a family of neo-Nazis - and of course "A L'intérieur", which is honestly one of the most disturbingly shocking and nauseating films ever made. Just to give you an idea, this movie makes all the "Saw" films look like kindergarten picnics and "Hostel" like a well-behaving high school student project. This isn't an exaggeration or a shameless way to promote the French horror cinema, because anyone who saw "A L'intérieur" as well will easily confirm the comparisons are justified. Not only is the carnage in this movie far more visceral and confronting, the script also doesn't avert from a single taboo theme or politically incorrect topic. A pregnant woman is subject to extreme terror, we witness the effect of physical torture from inside the womb, the infamous Parisian riots are mentioned numerous times (including the typical reactions of the police) and there definitely isn't a happy ending. Everything in this film, every slightest detail and every briefest word that gets spoken, is severely depressing and honestly makes you wonder why the world can be such a twisted place. It's Christmas Eve and Sarah, a beautiful young photographer living in the Parisian suburbs, is only one night away from giving birth to her first baby. But Sarah's feeling everything but merry, because her boyfriend and the father of her unborn child died four months earlier in a terrible road accident. Far away from all the Christmas celebrations, Sarah's all alone in her house when suddenly an unknown woman shows up on her doorstep. The mysterious and uncanny lady is determined to take away Sarah's baby and promptly subjects her to the most unimaginably cruel terror. All the attempts of people (her mother, employer and police patrol car) wanting to help Sarah result in unspeakable bloodbaths.This would of course be an ideal film to raise another debate about morals and the entertainment value of explicit horror movies. Who the hell, in his/her right state of mind, would find joy and entertainment in witnessing a pregnant woman undergo an inhumanly cruel series of barbarities? The truth remains that "A L'intérieur" is a non-stop depiction of senseless violence and various gratuitously bloody death sequences that serve absolutely no artistic purpose. I, for one, am the first to admit that this is a deeply unpleasant film to endure and, throughout several of the extendedly illustrated massacres, I almost felt ashamed to watch it with my eyes uncovered. But the film is inexplicably fascinating and impossible to look away from. Writer/director Alexandre Bustillo masterfully evokes feeling of helplessness (because you want to help Sarah, but can't), despair and disturbance. The make-up effects leave absolutely nothing to the imagination and several moments of grueling horror are very likely to cause overly sensitive people to throw up or faint. Most remarkable, however, is that the directors still manage to maintain an incredibly high level of brooding suspense. Usually this type of torture-porn flicks (like for example "Saw" and "Hostel") only manage to gross out their audience and completely ignore tension, but this gem easily achieves both effects. The acting performances, photography and musical guidance all contribute to the brilliance of "A L'intérieur" as well, and the aforementioned writer/director Bustillo is definitely someone to keep an eye on in the future. Now that I've seen this film, I feel slightly more confident about the scheduled remake of one of my all-time favorite genre landmarks ("Hellraiser"), because he'll take place in the director's chair.
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