Frontiere(s) Frontiere(s) (2008)
Directed by Xavier Gens
Did all the Fulci disciple horror directors move to France?
It seems like it as the French delivered another splatter-ific, gore-hound's dream, nightmare-phobia world in Frontiere(s).
Just like Inside, this movie is filled with buckets of intense gore and bloodshed. And because of that, I'll forgive the mish mash of American horror genres they put into this mess.
Let me start off by saying, the world thinks America is filled with gun toting, inbred rednecks (with some pockets of KKK and Neo-Nazi-ish pieces of shit in there too).
Well I'm not going to say the US is a cookie cutter wonderland but Europe seems to be fucked up as well. That father from Austria comes to mind. And the French riots in 2005 shouldn't be overlooked as some major problems in France.
So it's good to know there are some inbred, cannibal neo-nazi families on the borderland of France.
Plot-O-Matic
A couple of French hipsters take off to the French frontiere aka border after their Reservoir Dogs heist in riot prone Paris. Yasmine, our pregnant femme and her tough guy boyfriend try to meet up with the other heisters and end up a hostel/inn that has that oh so fucked up family that's worse than your own during Thanksgiving
Influences
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Haute Tension, The Descent, Hostel, Saw
Rewind the Insanity
OK. It's not very original. Sometimes I think the up and coming French horror directors watch our American horror crap and do the remake thing in reverse.
Dear France,
We currently suck at horror. Don't copy us.
-the jaded viewer (USA)
That's not too say this flick isn't good. It's premise is CTRL-C from our best horror movies as you can see above. But the conventions are copied to a tee.
-Teenagers resting in a seemingly eerie "hostel"
-Oversexed males egos are stroked with some French eye candy "pleasure" with the hot looking sisters
-The patriarch is always some old, white haired, insane brutal killer looking for an heir
-There's the good son who obeys orders
-There's the bad son who does the dirty work
-The Leatherface guy
-The young daughter who's totally bonkers
Yup. Same horror conventions that we've all seen before. But those can be forgiven when all other horror cylinders are working well.
The visuals are clever and scary. The barn interiors and butcher-ish morgue only add to the decadent setting.
And now to the scenes of gore! gore! gore!The movie is frenetically paced with the scenes of carnage. Each chase is filled with mouting tensions between each slaughter. The ending is done with editing insanity as Ripley-like Yasmine escapes from her captors. Without these scenes of terror and unrelenting gore, Frontiere(s) would be yet another After Dark Horrorfest flick thrown into the used DVD bin.
That's the best part of it. The prudish Hollywood system would never create a movie like this with its over the top gore and savage beating of the heroine.
But it's French so that's just fine and dandy.
And it's dandy to see this all come out.
The Gore-ipedia
Knife trauma, Ankle trauma, Steam trauma, Shotgun trauma, Saw trauma, Butcher trauma, Scissor trauma, Neck trauma and more!
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
Frontiere(s) is currently out in limited theatrical release and it comes out on DVD on 5/13. French horror has always been cutting edge and they go to the cliff on this one. Frontiere(s) splatter and extreme scenes of carnage makes it's American counterparts look Disney-ish in comparison.
I'm not going to say this made me all giddy like Inside did. But at leastthe gorehound in me was entertained from start to finish.
Rating:
The Trailer
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The Trailer
frontiere(s), french horror , after dark horrorfest 2007 , gore splatter, hostel, the hills have eyes, shane ryan, gratuitous nudity, 8 films to die for, 2008 horror movies, 2008 gore splatter horror, horror movies of 2007,
Posts
hey there jeffy pop. im doing a project on the comparisons between the generic conventions of french and asian horror, and i was just wondering if i could ask you a few questions? it would be a really big help! x
ReplyDeleteSure. My email is in the nav bar to the right.
ReplyDeleteThis was a depressing piece of shit. I was waiting for something scary to happen and it never did. The Nazi "Father" was a hoot; could they have found any more of an old fag to play this part?
ReplyDeleteThe ankle trauma was cool.
The director should have shown the mutant tots.
The chicks in this movie looked like they had been rode hard and put away wet. Jeezus, French girls are supposed to be hot.
This one wasn't a thrill a minute for me. I couldn't wait for it to end. Boring.
I live in the Midwest, and I can take an afternoon ride and find half a dozen old farms with pigs, old barn buildings, and hillbillies 10 times scarier than the pussies in this movie.
Yeah this one of the average French flicks that came out. But if you see Martyrs or Inside...now thats some good shit
ReplyDelete