French Horror

[slayrrr666]

Time to get these "Sister" threads back up, this one about horror from France. So, tell us which ones you've seen and what you thought of them.

[Fenril]

I'd been missing these; maybe I should start a few more threads of my own, perhaps this time with a different bent...

Meanwhile, here´s my list of french horror, in alphabetic order:

Á ton image. Unable to conceive a child, a woman decides to just clone herself and pass her double as her daughter --not such a good idea, especially when the child start behaving in a very muderous way...

Fairly good domestic thriller with a sci-fi hook.


A l’intérieur [AKA Inside]. A recently widowed and very pregnant woman wants to spend New year's eve alone in her country house, but a stalker who just broke in has other ideas...

Frankly, I found this one overrated, it's so gory it's cartoonish at times and the plot twists border on ridiculous. It's a must for slasher and gore fans, however.


Haute tension. Two college girls take a country vacation, unaware of the deranged madman following them. He, in turn, is unaware of one of the girl's true nature...

I liked this one when I first saw it because of its unrelentingly nasty tone, through the (by now famous) big twist is just stupid. There's some good sequences here, nevertheless.


Ils [AKA Them]. A couple vacationing on the country [say, starting to notice a trend, here?] are attacked by "something" in the dark...

Really liked this one, as it takes the opposite approach of most modern french horror --quiet, suspenseful and suggestive instead of ultra gory. Who or what "they" are will either creep you out or strike you as stupid (I found it rather disturbing).


Un jeu d’enfants. An urban family find their lovely apartment haunted by the ghosts of the previous owners.

Standard haunted house movie, through the Europeans have a way of making this a much nastier affair than you'd normally expect.


Maléfique. Four prisoners in a penitentiary find a grimoire that lets them open a portal to another dimension. In theory, this should allow them to escape with ease. In practice, this may lead to a worse kind of prison...

Okay supernatural thriller with some original touches here and there.


Promenons-nous dans les bois [AKA Deep in the woods]. A theater troupe is hired to perform "Red riding hood" for an excentric millionaire and his grandson in their secluded mansion. Beware the madman lurking nearby in a wolf suit...

Good slasher (with pseudo ghiallo touches) with a cool costume for the killer. The cast isn't that interesting, however...


Saint Ange. The caretaker of a boarded up orphanage comes to believe the building is haunted. But by whom or what?

Didn't much care for this one, through it does have a nice old-school atmosphere.


Sheitan. A group of young adults spend some down time in a country (yep!) house, whose occupants have a few twisted plans for the youngsters.

Really weird thriller that's more notable for its very politically incorrect tone than anything else. It's not that scary, either.


And the French / Italian coproduction Histoires extraordinaires [AKA Spirits of the dead AKA Tre passi nel delirio], which adapts tree Allan Poe tales: Metzengerstein (not very close to the original story, but it's notable for the perverse casting of Jane and Peter Fonda as incestous lovers), William Wilson (not bad) and Toby Dammit (the best of the three instalements, and pretty much Federico Fellini's sole horror effort).

[slayrrr666]

Well, since you did this, I'll put mine up. I really haven't seen any of the modern French stuff, my stuff is much more of the classic-era variety.

Baby Blood-A mother finds herself driven to kill in order to satisfy her unborn baby's growing bloodthirst. Indeed, it's a Grace knockoff twenty years before the fact, only with more concentration on the bloodletting than on the psychological breakdown of the mother, since it's not born yet and she's still pregnant the entire time. Pretty decent, but doesn't really have a lot of action and really wanders in the middle with it's boring police investigation angle. Not bad, though.

Female Vampire-A woman reporter finds herself drawn to the female vampire living in her area as she conducts a massive search for the single person she wants to spend eternity with. The infamous Jess Franco film, which goes by literally a dozen titles in several incarnations that range from Horror to full-on porn, the version I have is the intermediate cut: everyone's nude and you see everything, but the sex is still softcore in tone, missing the actual penetration scene that shifts it into the hardcore territory. It's incredibly boring as a horror film, but frankly the nudity keep me preoccupied to otherwise notice or care.

Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay-A couple traveling in the French countryside happen upon a coven of witches whose leader offers to include her in their sect of sex slaves and forcing him to escape her insane henchmen to rescue her. Really just an excuse to showcase a bunch of lesbians interacting with each other, with minimal effort paid to the horror of the witches, and the mere fact that the finale features the members of the ceremony protesting the latest indoctrination to showcase how much more useful they are to her in a gigantic orgy makes it pretty clear this was intended for the Sexploitation market, but the Gothic castle and inclusion of witchcraft keeps it marginally in the horror category.

High Tension-A woman and her friends find themselves at the mercy of a savage killer while staying at their countryside villa, but it soon dawns on them that there may be more going on than initially thought. This needs to be said before I go off on the rest of the film: while I do enjoy the premise of the killer's identity and found the twist pretty enjoyable, the fact that it makes no sense when compared to the rest of the actions in the film are what get me. I don't mind what it did, I just care that it never made it make sense n the confines of the film. That said, the suspense is great, the stalking scenes are brilliant and the gore is suitably messy, which makes for some good times.

Necronomicon: Book of the Dead-Anthology effort detailing H.P. Lovecraft's quest to sneak the dreaded book out of the library vaults where it's stored and retelling tales contained within until he can accomplish the task. Definitely has it's good moments within each story, but just lacks a certain oomph to really make it up to the top of the heap in the Anthology rankings. Better than expected, though.

The Oasis of the Living Dead-A group of explorers looking for lost Nazi gold find a squadron of Zombies guarding the loot and forcing them into a deadly battle to get away alive. There's two versions out there of the same film, Oasis of the Living Dead and Treasure of the Living Dead, with Treasure actually comprising a lot of footage of this one but takes an alternate route to get to where this one does, has a different cast and the repeating characters are given different names in each version. Overall, not bad but definitely lower on the tier of Eurozombie films.

Saint Ange (or House of Voices)-A woman working at a boarding-school finds that the ghostly visions she sees are imploring her to right a long-held secret with her employers and tries to solve their dilemma. Overlong, boring and doesn't really have malicious ghosts, so this one wasn't all that great. Not a whole lot else to say here.

The Shiver of the Vampires-A honeymooning couple arrive at the remote castle of a lord and his brides, unbeknownst to them they are actual vampires and try to initiate them into their satanic cult. Absolutely glorious Gothic/Lesbian tale, with a grand castle Corman would've loved to shoot a Poe film with Price ten years earlier, practically every female in the film completely naked, and a lot of the supernatural flying about, it's quite a bit of fun. Not really all that coherent, but it's not really important.

Them-A married couple find themselves in the midst of a series of attacks by strange beings known only as "Them," and try to find a way to survive their encounter. One of four films in the history of my viewing experience that left me literally pissed off and angry at the conclusion of it, so I don't have a lot of nice things to say about it. The opening attack in the rain is the most amount of praise I'll throw at it, the rest of it royally pissed me off.

Zombie Lake-A series of deaths in a small village leads the inhabitants to fear that the squadron of Nazis they secretly dispatched years ago are back and looking to settle the score with them, forcing both sides into a dramatic battle. The infamous film where the sheer ineptitude of the special effects on display, from the zombie paint visibly coming off and showing the human actor's skin beneath it, blood tubes delivering the splatter becoming visible, a suburban swimming pool being used to show a lake in the middle of nowhere and sound effects depicting a WWII aerial battle, this one is just so much fun and cheesy that it's impossible not to like. Yes, it's inept to the point of ridiculousness, but that doesn't mean it's not fun.

[Fenril]

One more for the list:

- La pacte des loups (aka Brotherhood of the wolf). Very loosely based on the real life "Beast of Gévaudan" case (a monster said to have killed roughly 113 people in XVIII century France), this movie rolls period drama, creature-feature horror and martial action into a single strange yet quite entertaining tale. There are several anachronisms --all probably intentional, as they lead to such sights as Monica Belluci slicing someone's throat with a razor fan straight out of a Mortal Kombat game. Overall, good, quirky movie.

[slayrrr666]

I've been meaning to tackle that one for a long time, ever since I first heard about it, but the length and period drama feel I suspected it to be always threw me off. Is that something you'd think I'd enjoy, knowing my viewing habits and tastes? The horror stuff and martial arts you mentioned are intriguing, but I'm not too sure about the rest of the stuff.

[Fenril]

Mar 25, 2011 10:01:06 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

I've been meaning to tackle that one for a long time, ever since I first heard about it, but the length and period drama feel I suspected it to be always threw me off. Is that something you'd think I'd enjoy, knowing my viewing habits and tastes? The horror stuff and martial arts you mentioned are intriguing, but I'm not too sure about the rest of the stuff.

I think you would enjoy it, but you'll want to fastforward through all scenes set in the French court (they are mostly political discussions, and are the reason the movie clocks in at almost three hours). The creature attacks and the fights are all very good, and you'll probably enjoy the sequences in a brothel, as well.

Incidentally, the director's cut is even longer (strangely, it has both longer fight scenes and even longer political debates)...

[slayrrr666]

I figured as much, that they'll be parts I loved and parts I utterly hated. Guess I'll have to get around to it at some-point then. Thanks man.

[slayrrr666]

Got to a new French horror film last night, Mutants, about a woman who struggles to survive the ravenous creatures in the French countryside mutated from a strange virus as they continually decimate those she comes into contact with while trying desperately to get away from them.

Part of my week-long ZombieThon efforts, this one turned out pretty decent if not overly spectacular or mildly irritating. When dealing with the creature's attacking, this one is a ton of fun, with them adapting the fun tactic of beating and wildly scratching and pounding their victim before they consume them, leaving it incredibly brutal and gory during those moments, and that they come mostly in the second-half gives it a really frantic and frenetic pace that makes it all the more enjoyable. Even the violence dished out to them makes for some fun, with them being shot up, entangled in barbed wire, set on fire and bashed to a pulp, among other fun activities, and the action-packed chases, escapes and battles are a lot of fun. It does tend to get lost in a rather drawn-out middle segment where she just seems to wander around looking for help and not really doing anything of any importance during these times, since it's quite pace, lack of action and tons of time devoted to accomplishing nothing really wear themselves out. Still, it's not too bad of an effort.

[slayrrr666]

Figured it'd be time to rank these, like I've done with the other countries we're I've seen a lot from. Kinda forgot about doing it before, might as well now:

1. The Shiver of the Vampires
2. High Tension
3. Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay
4. Mutants
5. Zombie Lake
6. Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
7. Female Vampire
8. The Oasis of the Living Dead
9. Baby Blood
10. Saint Ange
11. Them

[slayrrr666]

Finally have some more to update, got to two of them over the Thanksgiving holiday, the first being In their Sleep (Dans ton Sommeil).

After coming home from work, a troubled woman meets a stranger frantically trying to escape from a deranged serial killer and soon becomes entangled in a deadly, violent game with the killer now targeting her as well as someone who can't be trusted with what their saying.

Not all that great of an entry, especially since this one tends to really meander around all over the place with the incredibly illogical manner of featuring backstory segments within the main storyline, making everything so jumbled around and hard to really understand that there's almost no way of ensuring that the film is coherent in any way. As the main plotpoint here isn't all that great to start with, and tends to be incredibly predictable anyway, that just leaves an even more-pronounced sour feeling with the film. While the twists and turns do give it somewhat of a watchable-feeling as it goes along, that there's not a lot of other elements to keep it interesting are a major downfall, although several scenes are enjoyable enough and provide enough action and suspense to not make it a total loss, but it is a flawed experience overall.

The second entry was The Iron Rose (La rose de fer)

After getting stranded in a strange cemetery, a woman and her boyfriend find themselves in a nightmarish world of illusions and deranged fantasies and must try to survive in order to escape.

Somewhat disappointing effort, mostly due to the fact that there's just something missing from this one that really hurts it overall. The main thing here is Gothic atmosphere, and it's the old-school kind where it takes place in a cemetery so there's a lot to do with the gravestones and monuments all over the place, as well as the huge amounts of fog rolling in all over the place make for some incredibly chilling ideas and images. There's also a lot of pretty fun sequences running through the whole landscape, but the main problem here is the very over-done and incredibly irritating manner of yakking on about everything with a very philosophical manner, almost like it's an art film instead of a sleazy horror film which continues throughout the whole film and gets old very fast, and combines with the slow, dragged-out pace to lower it but otherwise this isn't that bad of a film.

The list now reads:

1. The Shiver of the Vampires
2. High Tension
3. Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay
4. Mutants
5. Zombie Lake
6. Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
7. Female Vampire
8. The Iron Rose
9. The Oasis of the Living Dead
10. Baby Blood
11. In their Sleep
12. Saint Ange
13. Them

[slayrrr666]

Finally have another one to update, Spirits of the Dead (Histórias Extraordinárias) which had been in my collection for ages but just now had a chance to catch.

A collection of three different Edgar Allen Poe tales: a sadistic baroness finds that a wild horse is the reincarnation of a doomed soul she condemned to die, an exact double causes trouble for a sadistic courtesan, a boozing actor falls under his impulses and personal demons when arriving to shoot a new movie in Italy.

Rather than do all three individually, all I'll say is that this has two good ones and one rather lame one. The first two are better, with the first (Metzengerstein) easily the best with it's Gothic atmosphere and action meshing nicely with the sadism and depravity before getting to a rather nice ending. Part two (William Wilson) is certainly watchable enough with an engrossing mystery as to the identity of the double and why he's there, a bit of depravity in the later half and the final sword-fight being quite good, though the segment tends to meander from the same set-up to the next without any variation, really keeping this one from doing anything entertaining with it's premise. The last one (Toby Dammit) was overall quite boring as the entire segment plays out as though it's an acid-trip nightmare. Sure, it's overtly weird and generally quite stylish visually, but that doesn't really make it scary. The drive through the deserted streets at night is about the only thing worthwhile here, as it's a lengthy, extended sequence that really gets far more enjoyable over time, though the majority of time taken up by the strange award ceremony rather than being scary really dooms this entry. Not enough for the movie overall, but just slightly.

The list now reads:

1. The Shiver of the Vampires
2. High Tension
3. Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay
4. Mutants
5. Zombie Lake
6. Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
7. Female Vampire
8. Spirits of the Dead
9. The Iron Rose
10. The Oasis of the Living Dead
11. Baby Blood
12. In their Sleep
13. Saint Ange
14. Them

[slayrrr666]

Have another one to update to the list, Carnival of Sinners (La main du diable).

Down on his luck and trying to change it, a man acquires a cursed hand said to accomplish that and finds it to come true, only for the devilish owner of the hand to appear to him looking to collect on the final aspect of the deal.

Overall, this was a very puzzling effort as there's some great stuff here and some really troubling stuff. The troubling stuff is off to a start right away, as the main gimmick of this is that it's supposed to be the lead recounting his story to the group in a remote mountain lodge, yet it takes a good while to start off the story-telling which really throws the pacing to this one all over the place. Rather than be introduced to everything quite quickly, the dragged-out pace early on makes the first half seem quite overlong as it sets up his new lifestyle change and the resulting situations that spring from that. After that, it gets a lot better when the Satanic angle finally gets played and that sets off a lot of good stuff, from being tormented by the ever-increasing amount needed to end it all to the string of luck that comes to an end through his meddling is all in good fun, and when that gets to the finale with the assembled owners in masks recounting their fates, it's when this one really gets going and delivers some fun. All in all, it's problematic but not too bad.

The list now reads:

1. The Shiver of the Vampires
2. High Tension
3. Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay
4. Mutants
5. Zombie Lake
6. Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
7. Carnival of Sinners
8. Female Vampire
9. Spirits of the Dead
10. The Iron Rose
11. The Oasis of the Living Dead
12. Baby Blood
13. In their Sleep
14. Saint Ange
15. Them

[slayrrr666]

Have another one to update to the list, Frontier(s) (Frontière(s)).

Trying to escape a local revolution, a group of thieves escape the city and arrive at a secluded motel in the countryside to regroup, only to stumble upon the sinister truth about the owners there and try to get out of the area alive.

Overall, this was a very interesting if flawed effort as there's some great stuff here and some really troubling stuff. The troubling stuff isn't all that damaging yet features prominently in the film, mainly the fact that the film's several big action scenes are edited with the ultra-annoying and jarring quick-cut editing that renders the whole scene nearly impossible to make out, as if it had a chance with all the camera-jerking and shaking going on. This one, then, features both tactics during these scenes, and they're the big action chases so those are supposed to be the sequences you want to see, so it knocks itself down a bit for that. However, the rest of the film is highly entertaining and utterly enjoyable starting off with the introduction of the Nazi family which is pretty chilling given the relationship with the group, and their series of chases and confrontations are quite fun. As a bloodbath, it's got a lot to like as this one really lets it flow numerous times with it's graphic depictions of bodies getting torn open, dismemberments, decapitations and more, which are pretty realistic at times and generate a lot of fun. As well, there's some nice suspense at times included within, with one stand-out sequence where several victims crawl through an increasingly narrower tunnel guided only by a cigarette lighter and see they're being chased through by something or someone, and they're mixed nicely with the dirty, depraved goings-on to create a rather fun entry that happily stands among the good new French splatter-fests.

The list now reads:

1. The Shiver of the Vampires
2. High Tension
3. Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay
4. Mutants
5. Zombie Lake
6. Frontier(s)
7. Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
8. Carnival of Sinners
9. Female Vampire
10. Spirits of the Dead
11. The Iron Rose
12. The Oasis of the Living Dead
13. Baby Blood
14. In their Sleep
15. Saint Ange
16. Them

[slayrrr666]

Have another one to update to the list, Jess Franco's Spanish/French co-production The Awful Dr. Orloff (aka Gritos en la noche).

When a series of strange women disappearances cause the authorities to get suspicious, a police investigator stumbles onto the scientist responsible and his deformed assistant abducting the women for experiments on his daughter and race to stop him.

This was overall a really enjoyable Gothic horror. One of the best elements to this is the film's rather gritty atmosphere from the different stalking scenes out amongst the fog-enshrouded city streets as the shadows flitting across the walls make for truly impressive shots, and the slow-building mystery surrounding the disappearances makes for an even bigger part of what's going on. The appearance of the deformed helper and his grotesque visage strikes a very imposing image as he moves through his scenes as obedient as possible, generating one of the film's stand-out scenes as he stalks a helpless victim through a multi-floor Gothic mansion as she desperately tries to get away, and with the film's rousing finale in the laboratory and a pretty queasy surgery scene thrown in it makes for the film's best points. There's some flaws here, mainly in the fact that it's a straight rip of several other films that won't be too hard to come up with as inspiration here, and that this does nothing new with the material other than added a deformed hulk doing the killings doesn't allow this to stand-out all that much. As well, the low-budget nature of this one is quite apparent and allows some silliness to shine through in inopportune times to really hurt this one somewhat, but it's still enjoyable enough when it counts.

The list now reads:

1. The Shiver of the Vampires
2. High Tension
3. Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay
4. Mutants
5. Zombie Lake
6. Frontier(s)
7. Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
8. Carnival of Sinners
9. Female Vampire
10. Spirits of the Dead
11. The Iron Rose
12. The Oasis of the Living Dead
13. The Awful Dr. Orlof
14. Baby Blood
15. In their Sleep
16. Saint Ange
17. Them