Frontiere(s)

This is a French horror film, obviously in French. I always watch foreign films in the original language with English subtitles. I cannot stand dubbing. This movie is about some kids who took advantage of the riots in Paris and stole some money. They are escaping to rural France, hoping to head out of the country. They have the misfortune of staying at an inn where the family running it is a family of Nazi cannibals trying to create the perfect race

The plot is a little weak honestly. There are a lot of questions unanswered and some of the character's actions do not make much sense. The father of the family spouts a lot of dogma about a pure race but it does not make sense. This may be due to bad subtitles though.

Also, the main character's acting drives me nuts. She runs around shaking like she is in some kind of perpetual seizure. I can understand it if it started happening at the end of the movie, but just as soon as she starts being beat she starts into convulsions and never stops. Many of the characters are unlikeable. Even the so-called protagonists are mere criminals who try to act tough but turn out just to be big pussies. Only one of the characters of the Nazi family is likable, a young deformed woman named Eva. She tries to help the female protagonist throughout the movie.

While I spent the last two paragraph talking about the negatives, I must point out the positives. The gore in this movie is not as much as you would think for a French horror film, but it is quite respectable. There are fingers getting severed, saws chopping through people, and people hung up on butcher hooks. The protagonist runs through the last part of the movie covered head to toe with blood, much like the protagonist in The Descent. Another positive about this movie is that while a lot of movies have the strong alpha woman who "surprises" audiences with her "hidden" strength and this movie has that too, it is much more subdued. The protagonist in this movie does not become emotionally strong and beat off all the bad guys. Instead she whimpers and cries and shakes through the ordeal while still getting the job done. This is a lot more realistic than the weak woman to super woman theme we have seen in a lot of recent horror movies.

French Horror movies are my favourite so I am a bit biased in my review. Overall, the plot is moderately weak, the gore is above average but not the best, but the tone of the movie helps make up for these pitfalls. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. A good movie for true horror fans.