This low budget film tells the tale of four prisoners locked together in the same cell, who are desperate to escape. The four different men are Carrère (Gérald Laroche)a millionaire fraudster who was shopped by his wife, Lassalle (Clovis Cornillac) a former librarian, who driven mad by reading murdered his wife, Marcus (Philippe Laudenbach) a vicious killer who now aspires to be a woman, and Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud) a half-wit who ate his baby sister.
Carrère is the last prisoner put in the cell and receives a cold welcome on his arrival. However soon after Carrère finds a book buried in the wall by his bunk. The book details how a former prisoner escaped using black magic. The prisoner, Danvers, a serial killer in the 1920's, abruptly vanished shortly after his incarceration. Soon, we find, the four prisoners experimenting with Danvers book in the hope of a speedy escape but what the book begins to reveal are its dark, terrifying secrets.
Maléfique is a simple but effective chiller that requires a little bit of patience over the slow start, but once the plot does develop I found I was drawn into the claustrophobic setting and my attention was held until the quite unexpected ending.Director Eric Valettes first feature is a credit to his fine use of atmosphere,tension and his cast.The four main characters are intriguing and brilliantly played by the four actors involved,especially Philippe Laudenbachs depiction of Marcus,the bodybuilding pre-op transexual.The film has echoes of a Gothic novel or something from early Clive Barker books,which I found director Valette handled with a lot of style.
My problem with Maléfique was for all his good work,Valette was let down in ways by his budget.Some of the CGI-effects are quite cheap looking and while this might be a small thing it did take away from the film overall.So while not my favorite horror to come out of France in the last few years,Maléfique is still enjoyable and Eric Valette should be proud of what he has achieved with his film considering the small budget he had to work with.
