Director: Pascal Laugier
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 2.0
Nasty little picture starts off with a young woman (Mylène Jampanoï) - with the help of a female accomplice (Morjana Alaoui) - seeking revenge against a deceptively normal family that allegedly tortured her as a youth - from there, the picture changes into something considerably more morbid, as the accomplice gets captured and tortured in the same manner by a bizarre cult. The rating I've given this - a C- in my own notes (or two stars online) - is generous considering that this is a gag movie both literally and figuratively: director/screenwriter Laugier, a student of horror movies, has come up with a way for his audience to indulge in 'torture porn' (like the Hostel movies and Aja's High Tension) for well over 95% percent of the movie - and 'enjoy' the almost non-stop bloodletting, torture, screaming and mutilation - by making the movie's last 5% a feeble philosophical meditation on what happens to us when we die. The technical prowess is formidable but the thesis is weak - in the 1960's they would have argued that drugs were the gateway to a higher plane while here in the 21st Century it's being skinned alive (!?) - and Laugier's (intentional) ignorance of basic human physiology is good for a few dark chuckles (these none-too-bright babes are beyond human: so much gore!). I've always liked the response I got when I asked a surgeon friend years ago where he thinks we go when we die: he told me "Everywhere." I'm good with that.
