Inside [DVD] [2007]

Inside is probably one of the most graphic, bloody, nauseating, eyes averting and shockingly violent modern horror films to date.I actually am struggling at the moment to think of a film which made me feel more uncomfortable. Maybe George A Romero's Day of The Dead, and that was 25 years ago.Much has been made of the new French horror films. Darker, more brutal, more bloody and extreme than mainstream american horror films (Hostel, Saw) and also much deeper, and much more clever.Martyrs is probably the only of these films I actually liked. Switchblade Romance, while very suspenseful, was very unorginal. Frontiers I thought was even worse. Cannibal Nazis? How new..The plot in this is actually rather original. A woman who lost her husband in a car crash a few months earlier, is due to give birth to her child the next day, which happens to be Christmas. However, a strange woman comes to the door, demanding her child.. From there on we have blood sprays, navals being sliced open with scissors, as well some very sensitive manly areas. If a film was ever to rival Peter Jacksons Braindead in pure blood, then this would probably be it.Except, the tone is such darker, so much more serious, that the blood and gore is fairly off-putting. I'm not one to be put off by violence in a film, but something about it in this film, made me feel rather sick. Every death was lingered on FAR too long, and there was also some bad cgi violence. Boo. Hostel and Saw have violence to titilate the audience, giving those kind of films a legitimate torture-porn lisence, and unfortunatley I feel like I must label this with that term.The gore is rather pointless. It doesn't move along the plot, it doesn't make us care more about the plot, the characters, no deeper understanding. Also, any film where animals are savagely and pointlessly killed instantly loses marks with me.The film can be very scary, but some of the scariest films made are essentially gore-less. Halloween, and the Spanish horror Rec. This shows how the gore doesn't even benefit the experience.Some of the police officers are so inept. I won't give it away, but the police officers defy logic, with leaving a pregnant woman alone after an emergency call in which she says there was a threatning woman trying to break in, is a personal highlight.Trying not to spoil anything, the last 15 minutes of Inside are the final nail in the coffin. Toasters and a zombie all get involved. No, I didn't get it either.I give it an extra star due to the acting, which is good, not amazing, but good. Also, the cinematography is also quite good, with interesting shots and angles.Unfortunately, due to the needless and sickening gore, the CGI, the ending I really can't say I recommend Inside. If you want gore, try George A Romeros Dawn of the Dead, or Peter Jacksons Braindead. Scares and suspense, Martys or Rec are good choices. I know I'm going to be hated by many horror fanboys, but this is just my opinion, and I'm only trying to advise those who may not be into as extreme horror as others.

Inside has surely got to be one of the finest horror movies of our time.A film that has it all;tension,drama,emotion and two outstanding performances by Beatrice Dalle and Alysson Paradis.I love the score for the film aswell.The gentle,melancholy piano(which we hear when Sarah is looking at pictures of her dead husband)is haunting and effectively understated.It perfectly underpins the characters' sadness.I also really like the strange,swirling soundscapes in the beginning of the film,these give a feeling of unease and help add to the building tension and claustrophobic atmosphere. It takes an incredible amount of talent to effectively weave emotion and sympathy into a film as harsh and violent as Inside.It is a credit to not only the directors but the performances aswell.Indeed,only the French seem to be able to strike this balance between touching melodrama and genuinely horrific imagery.This is never more evident than in the closing scene of the movie(a scene which,if executed differently,could have amounted to nothing more than a graphic shock-sequence).Thanks to the starkly realistic performance of Alysson Paradis,this becomes a truly disturbing and upsetting scene(and elevates the sequence above and beyond a mere shock-tactic,like the baby scene in "A Serbian Film" for example).All the background music/sound effects stop and we are left with only her desperate,harrowing screams of agony.It is a lengthy,graphic and near-unbearable scene which sends a shiver up your spine and has often moved me to tears(the only other gruelling scene I can compare it to,is the first child killing in the Spanish film,"In A Glass Cage"). Obviously,the graphic and confrontational nature of the movie will deter many potential viewers,which is a shame because this is such an accomplished piece of work and much more than just another gruesome horror film,to me it is equal parts drama and thriller aswell.A masterpiece of modern cinema that handles it's daring subject matter with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer!It is a tense,gripping and frightening experience and a very close contender for my favourite "extreme" film of all time.

!!!WARNING. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!Christmas Eve. Sarah(Alysson Paradis) is very close to going into labour, and spends one last night at home, waiting to be picked up and taken to hospital the following morning. Having lost the father of the baby in a terrible car crash, Sarah is still grieving and experiencing nightmares, but her biggest nightmare is yet to come, as a scissor weilding maniac(Beatrice Dalle) is desperate for a baby of her own, and decides that Sarah's unborn child fits the bill.First of all, the reason this film stops just short of being a masterpiece in the horror genre is towards the end it becomes maddingly ambiguous and perhaps loses a little of the clear, crisp narrative it had fought so hard to achieve. However, that is a very minor grumble.'Inside' is still a terrific film, a grim, unrelenting adult horror with scenes of strong violence and threat galore. Not for everyone for sure, but for the horror connoisseur, this film will be a real treat, a truly visceral journey into darkness. It helps that the two female leads are so strong, expectant mother and cuckoo battling to the death.Like another French horror 'Martyrs', the reason this film succeeds is that it is unafraid to tackle slightly taboo subject matters and tackle them it does, full on.It is also refreshing to see another original horror coming from Europe, at a time where sadly the United States horror output has become an endless cycle of tired retreads and lame remakes.I would recommend this film to horror film fans and lovers of extreme cinema. Expectant mothers and the easily offended should approach with caution. As for this Momentum release, well there is an entertaining 'making-of' featurette to accompany the film, but little else. 5 out of 5 as I really enjoyed the film.