Interesting horror film festival in Estonia

The Haapsalu Horror & Fantasy Film Festival takes place this April in Estonia. There is a special category dedicated to new French horror films.

Click below for links for further info on the festival:

Estonia Free Press

hoff.ee

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Haute Tension (Switchblade Romance) 2003

Alexandre Aja's Haute Tension tells the tale of two university students Marie (Cecile De France) and Alex (Maiwenn) who, with exams approaching, decide to retreat to Alexs family home in the country for some peace and quiet to revise. This peace however is shattered as on their first night in the house a crazed killer comes calling. After disposing of Alexs family the intruder, unaware of Maries presence in the house, ties up Alex and bundles her into his waiting van. Desperately trying to free Alex, Marie ends up locked in the van with her and the intruder drives off with both girls trapped in the back. This begins a white knuckle ride as the two girls try frantically to escape the clutches of the unhinged killer.

Marking a return to the raw intensity of 1970's horror classics such as 'The Last House in the Left' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', director Aja's Haute Tension strips back to the bare essentials, building a narrative of growing dread and relentlessly tightening the screws of suspense. Cecile De France's portrayal of Marie is a revelation in what was surely a very demanding role, both physically and mentally.

On the downside however I found there to be too many holes in the story and the twist at the end just didn't do it for me. This, along with the notion that the plot was "borrowed" from Dean R Koontz's novel 'Intensity', tarnished this film slightly for me.

With Monsieur Aja now directing in the US, his remake of 'The Hills have Eyes' is definitely worth checking out, this earlier directorial outing, while it does have its bad points, is still an enjoyable roller coaster of a film, and not a bad way to spend a stormy evening in.

Dans Ma Peau (In my Skin) 2002

The split screen used in the opening sequence of Dans Ma Peau seems to set the scene for a film with a detachment and alienation at its centre. Marina de Van writes, directs and stars in this genuinely unnerving film about the controversial subject of self harm.

De Van plays Esther, a seemingly normal, successful, happy woman who, at the beginning of the film, falls and cuts her leg at a party. It isn't until some time later that she actually notices the cut. She is not alerted by the pain of it (which she oddly doesn't feel) but when she notices blood spatter on the carpet. When she finally sees the wound her entire leg is bloodied by the extensive gash.

After a visit to the doctor, who stitches up the wound, he tells Esther that she may need cosmetic surgery to hide the scar. The following day and for no apparent reason, she removes the bandages and begins to pick at the wound. Over the next few days things begin to spiral out of control with Esther becoming more and more addicted to the wound. She then begins to mutilate herself, as if trying to recreate the initial injury and seems to get pleasure from the act. Esther then cuts more and deeper and by the end of the film the self inflicted violence reaches disturbing new heights. All the help that Esther is offered by friends and family is pushed away, and only the perverse joy she gets from the act of self mutilation becomes all she is interested in.

Dans Ma Peau is very different to the average mainstream horror, with no ghosts or physco killers lurking in the dark, it simply shows of one woman's slow descent into madness. For it to work it must rely heavily on the performance of Marina de Van, which I have to say she delivers in some style. Her performance of Esther is both tragic and very touching with good support coming from the rest of the cast. De Vans direction is also first rate and the voyeuristic approach to Esther's disease is handled beautifully.

My problem with the film however is that it comes across at times somewhat pretentious, as it we are watching some bizarre performance art, but credit to Marina de Van for creating something quite unique if at times extremely hard to watch.

Maléfique 2002

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.

Links to other good websites on French horror

If you interested in French horror, you may also want to check out:

eeriebooks.com

bloodygoodhorror.com

bloody-disgusting.com

killermovies.com

upcominghorrormovies.com