A L’interieur (Inside)

Title: A L’interieur (Inside)
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Starring: Beatrice Dalle, Alysson Paradis
Language: French

This is a blood bath, there's no doubt about. A pregnant woman (Paradis) wakes up to an intruder (Dalle) in her bedroom trying to cut open her for the unborn baby. The sight of the scissors penetrating her belly button is unforgettable and unremorseful, which makes many other horror films seem silly, but in all honesty I expected the film to have more matter, since it did have potential to be something greater. The acting is good, this I doubt not, and the bloody scenes were flawlessly directed, but what started as good thriller shortly ended up being a mindless blood bath.

Let me begin with the acting, "Dalle" whom we only know her as "La Femme" gave a chilling performance, one of the best film psychopaths I saw. What's even more frightening in this film is imagining her as a mother; this is something that reminded me of "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle". She rarely speaks, which might seem ridiculously cheesy in many other films, but I thought here it was effective. "Paradis" did a good job as "Sarah"; we can easily feel for here with the loss of her husband before, and with her desperate attempts to protect her baby and herself. Emotionally it is a good film, putting aside the bloodshed, at some moments we easily feel nervous of what might happen.

Directed by "Alexandre Bustillo" and "Julien Maury", the film is what any horror fan desires. They had complete liberty in this film, and they didn't let it pass without taking it to the limits. I don't think that their main goal was to scare, something I am sure that worked well with many people. I can't say I was scared, but I can say some moments were jus irritated me a bit, those who watched this film understand, and those who will watch it will understand. The film had a good potential to be a good thriller also, but I think the directors got carried away with all the gore to a point I think it wasn't necessary. Films like "Misery" and "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" basically didn't need gore to be thrilling. It should be noted that I like the elements of surprise and how the music was used with it.

The biggest disappointment for me was the writing by "Alexandre Bustillo". Not only do we find holes in this film, like how did "La Femme" enter the house to begin with, we find some really odd, sometimes clichés of horror films made. Why didn't "Sarah" use the gun, the one given to her by an officer in the later part of the film, against "La Femme" when she jumped on here as "Sarah" was resting at the bed? The gun is directly next to her hand, yet strangely we see "Sarah" struggling to run a way, something she managed to do. This was just a silly stallment as I saw it, something that only adds more "scares" to the film. "La Femme" is obviously possessed with getting the baby, yet she does many things that could have easily killed the baby, like shooting carelessly at a door "Sarah" is behind, forgetting the fact that she might kill what she desires. Other odd things will do, but I'll leave you to pay attention to, I don't want to spoil more.

I won't hide that I expected more, but it's still a good film to watch. It shall satisfy our bloody desires. In general I wasn't completely disappointed, and enjoyed watching it. Horror fans I am sure will like this. It is a cool change from the casual "masked killer running around like a maniac, killing people, and other people try to escape him." I read a remake might be made, with "Jaume Balagueró", director of films such as "REC", controlling the direction. Of what I know, a more realistic film will be made. I hope it is improved, not ruined.