Inside (À l'intérieur) Review on DVD from Dimension Extreme!

Inside (À l'intérieur) DVD cover artwork Dimension Extreme

From time to time, diehard horror enthusiasts doubt the state in which the genre is in today. Certain fans believe the genre is not as strong as it once was. Others lose their faith in the genre and remain wary of the newest film releases, which plague their movie theaters and local video stores. When there is doubt in American horror, there is always hope to be found in foreign horror. Whether it is with the United Kingdom and their unique mix of horror comedy, the Asian wave of the supernatural, Australian outback terror, or French bloodbaths, there is consolation in seeking out the finest offerings from overseas to satisfy the most hardcore genre fans. Every once and a while a film comes along and shatters any doubt you ever had in our beloved genre. From France, Alexandre Bustillo’s and Julien Maury’s Inside (À l’intérieur) is such a film. Want to see your worst nightmare on celluloid? Look no further than this cinematic tour de force, which reaches an uncomfortable intensity so extreme, you may even be tempted to take a ten-to-fifteen-minute break just to run outside and get a breath of fresh air.

The screenplay, written by co-director Bustillo, follows the aftermath of a devastating car accident, which involved photojournalist Sarah (Alysson Paradis) and claimed the life of her loving husband. This tragic loss leaves Sarah alone, grieving and pregnant on Christmas Eve in her cozy suburban French abode. Depression sinks in, on this lonely and gloomy night. Due in for labor on the following day, Sarah mopes around the house with all Christmas cheer gone. When a mysterious woman (Beatrice Dalle, known only in the end credits as Le Femme) taunts her from an outside window, Sarah has no idea what unspeakable horror awaits her. Disguised in black clothing, the unknown woman breaks into Sarah’s house over night armed with a large pair of sharp scissors. Never did Sarah think she would have to fight for her life, as well as the life of her unborn child. The psychotic who broke into her house is not much interested with hurting Sarah as she is in her baby. Actually, the baby is all this lady wants. She is prepared to terrorize, maim, butcher, and murder anyone and everyone in her way. And boy does she ever!

In interviews, french filmmakers Bustillo and Maury explained how this feature film was largely influenced by John Carpenter and his seminal classic Halloween. It is rather easy to tell they were chiefly influenced with the best of the best in the genre. Additionally inspired by the Italian giallo, Bustillo and Maury take sparse influences and homage and take them in their own personal direction. The result is simply flawless. The filmmaking, beautifully realized and sophisticated, marks an effectively stunning visual scheme and pattern: Vibrant lighting and its deep focus on grue; expansive hallway shots filmed in golden hue; shots of never-ending darkness, where a dark figure lurks in the shadows and may pop out at any given moment. At all times, the camera impressively utilizes every inch of the atmosphere. Watching Inside as a horror fan first, the lover of all cinema and filmmaking in me truly wishes every movie to look and sound as wonderfully as this. Visually striking, the movie never becomes merely about style over substance. It has spades of style, but it shares its flash with substance, and it wears both on its multicolored coat.

In its claustrophobic minimalism (the bulk of the story takes place in a house and its upstairs bathroom), Inside evokes Halloween perfectly. If this is the case, Dalle’s psychopathic character plays “The Shape” character in the story and Paradis is the Laurie Strode. And since the film is filmed like a gothic “dark fairy tale”, Dalle is the Wicked Witch by all means (in the third act, her character actually resembles the Oz character), and as a pure and innocent character, Sarah is the Dorothy in the piece. The main difference between this film and the other is there is no yellow brick road. On the contrary, the road in which the Inside” directors take us on is bloodstained gushing red. If you consider yourself a gorehound in any way, shape or form, you owe it to yourself to watch this amazing film. Even though part of me wants to tell you all of the detailed scenes of bloodletting and carnage, the other part of me wants you to witness each insanely gruesome shock on your own. Believe the hype on this bad boy, folks: you need to see it to believe it. Oh yes, there will be blood. Everywhere. You will see every spray of it, every spurt and every droplet. Without question, Inside is a gorehound’s wet dream.

Once the violent onslaught begins, the viewer, along with the protagonist is in immediate danger. There is not a “safe” moment throughout the film. Just when you think the coast is clear, Le Femme pops up out of nowhere to inject fear and terror into our hearts and minds. I personally haven’t been as shaken up by a foreign feature since Gaspar Noe’s “Irreversible” in 2002. Surely, Bustillo and Maury’s superb work deserves a special spot on the top of the list in French cinema. This film significantly marks the arrival of two equally talented directors who take no prisoners and pull no punches in their nightmarish vision of good vs. evil. The story here closely resembles a lurid headline pulled from the newspapers. Sadly, there have been true life cases where crazed, psychopathic women unable to have a child on their own have violently attacked pregnant women not much unlike the events portrayed here in the film. Dalle’s performance as the maniacal attacker is so amazingly convincing, viewers truly believe it to be reality unfolding. It’s scary to think someone could be this downright crazed and homicidal in their quest of a baby, but there are people willing to kill to have a child. In Sarah’s case, Paradis does a fine job in portraying a person willing to kill for their child. Her determination to survive is emotionally draining.

On account of Béatrice Dalle and Alysson Paradis, Bustillo’s intelligent screenplay compares and contrasts their characters. Sarah and the Wicked Witch character are brought to an empathetic level at the conclusion when both of them are committing acts of violence. We are invested in both of them, and we are under the definite impression they will stop at virtually nothing to get what they want. You have an innocent main character in Sarah, who lost her husband to a fatal car crash. The baby survived and she is about to give birth to it. Then, you have the Wicked Witch; the mysterious woman who stalks and slashes in genuine Shape fashion and vows to steal this unborn child. How did she come to be so bitter and determined in her quest? The answer is uncovered at the right time, without being too talky or distracting. It actually gives the viewer a chance to stop and think about the characters for the first time throughout the bloody reign of terror. In the Wicked Witch’s case, the viewer is shown the futility of madness and how utter determination can bring a human being to commit such horrible acts against others.

Destined for cult classic status, Inside is the most traumatic cinematic event in recent memory. A horror work, which combines every element to make it a great accomplishment. It oozes atmosphere and style. It oozes gore and splatter. In addition to these two very important factors, it takes a cue from John Carpenter’s best fright films and manages to actually fright and shock at the same time. Hell, if Roman Polanski’s chiller Rosemary’s Baby scared pregnant women when it hit theaters in 1968, only God knows how scared (not to mention, offended) they would be with this demented French puppy. I want to bow down and thank France for their glorious gift to us; the film which definitely cancels any doubt I’ve ever had in my mind that creativity is gone in these times. I want to thank directors Bustillo and Maury for taking me on a nauseating, pulse-pounding rollercoaster of brutality and chaos. Savagely brutal and gleefully sadistic, Inside appropriately exemplifies the word “visceral”, and sets the standard for slashers to come.

AKA: À l’intérieur, Adentro, Inside: La venganza, A Invasora, Отвътре, Sees, Mesa mou, Μέσα μου, Ott bent, Inside – À l’intérieur, Yashiki-onna, 屋敷女, Instinto siniestro, Instinto siniestro, Najście, Înauntru, Месть нерожденному, U meni, 인사이드, 鮮胎活剝, İçerde, Помста немовляті

Directed by: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
Written by: Alexandre Bustillo
Produced by: Vérane Frédiani, Franck Ribière
Cinematography by: Laurent Barès
Editing by: Baxter
Special Effects by: Olivier Afonso, Jérémy B. Caravita, Jacques-Olivier Molon
Music by: François Eudes
Cast: Béatrice Dalle, Alysson Paradis, Nathalie Roussel, Francois-Regis Marchasson, Jean-Baptiste Tabourin
Year: 2007
Country: France
Language: French (English Subtitles)
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 30min

Studio: Genius Products
Distributor: Dimension Extreme