IMDb > Maléfique (2002)

Maléfique (2002) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   1,285 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 29% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Eric Valette
Writers:
Alexandre Charlot (scenario) and
Franck Magnier (scenario) ...
more
Contact:
View company contact information for Maléfique on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
7 May 2003 (France) more
Genre:
Fantasy | Horror
Tagline:
En sortirez-vous vivant?
Plot:
In a penitentiary, four prisoners occupy a cell: Carrère, who used his company to commit a fraud and... more | add synopsis
Awards:
3 wins more
User Comments:
Recommended to curio hunters and "pure" horror fans, delivers on its promise to be "malefic" more (22 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Gérald Laroche ... Carrère
Philippe Laudenbach ... Lassalle
Clovis Cornillac ... Marcus
Dimitri Rataud ... Pâquerette
Didier Bénureau ... Hippolyte Picus
Félicia Massoni ... Claire Carrère
Geoffrey Carey ... Charles Danvers
Paul-Alexandre Bardela ... Hugo Carrère
Boris Lutz ... Danvers jeune
Nelson Jourdan ... Danvers enfant
César Castagné-Favali ... Danvers bébé
Yves Arnault ... Le Directeur
Benjamin Haddad ... Le Gardien de Prison 1
Thierry Cazal ... Le Gardien de Prison 2
Olivier Bouana ... Le Gardien de Prison 3
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
France:90 min
Country:
France
Language:
French
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby SR
Certification:
UK:18 | Portugal:M/16 | France:-12 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Germany:16 | Australia:MA
Company:
Bee Movies more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
During the preproduction, a producer, thinking books were outdated, asked to replace the black magic book found by prisoners by an e-book. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Entre quatre murs (2003) (V) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful.
Recommended to curio hunters and "pure" horror fans, delivers on its promise to be "malefic", 9 November 2008
8/10
Author: matthewscott8 from United Kingdom

Maléfique is a very interesting movie. It is an unholy alloy of triumphs and failures. The central concept is great, three inmates with bizarre personalities are joined by a fourth (who the audience identify with) and they try to escape from their cell using a book of magic that they find within the walls of the cell.

The atmosphere is well-woven, it reminds me of reading about the prison stay of Edmond Dantes' in the Château d'If (prior to becoming the Count of Monte Cristo). The director sets up the feeling that the characters are tied to the cell, particularly the character we are meant to identify with (Carrère - a white-collar criminal whose crime is not touched on, although he obliquely refers to his impatient avarice). For example on one occasion Carrère dithers when leaving the cell for exercise and has the cell door shut on him. There are also no shots of the prison outside the cell, and the view through the bars is a longing sunset over a generic prison wall. So even though the film appears to be very modern, it has a very old world feel of incarceration.

The characters are intriguing. We have Marcus, a violent pre-op transsexual who plays an abusive mother to Pâquerette (French for Daisy) a heavily retarded young man. Pâquerette likes to eat everything he finds beautiful, and unfortunately this included his baby sister, hence his current predicament (I like this comment on internalisation, very primitive). Lasalle is a withdrawn, possessed elderly man, in for brutally murdering his wife.

The central message of the movie is that your desires will annihilate you, and there's a ritual that goes with that. I think that's what disturbs me the most, seeing people destroying themselves ritualistically. It has a real life ring to it. The quite simple soundtrack backs this up well, every step deeper into the quicksand is accompanied by the dull ringing of a gong. I'm actually hearing the gong now every time I do something self-destructive.

I think one of the plot problems is that the ends of the characters don't really reinforce the message consistently, particularly with Carrère, also the concept of the book seems to alter throughout the film, not in terms of a successive revelation either. I also think that some of the images we see are a bit amateurish, more by design than execution, such as the famous "vagina eye", and the sodomy of Lasalle, for me, totally hollow images.

At the end the movie it feels like the director is in a rush to get it over with, and some things don't seem logical, for example we've been clumsily led to believe different things about Carrère's child. This doesn't change the fact though that what we have here is that rare bird, a "pure" horror movie. There is no comedic dross or genre segueing, like Cube (1997/Natali), the obvious movie to compare it to, it's a total immersion experience, where you feel as if you are in the cell with the characters. This last comment I make about it being a "pure" experience I think is something others have mentioned as well so that is a fairly unanimous point.

On a personal note my favourite part of the film is when Lasalle talks about his past as a librarian. He very vividly describes a scene where he goes to work one day and sits down in his usual place in the centre of a room where all the books are arranged in a circle around him. The books seem to be chanting to him that he will never contain their knowledge. This prompts Lasalle to go insane. That really is the problem with an obsession with understanding and knowledge. It's something I myself have felt.

One final comment is that two of the quite well-received comments on the board have confused the characters' names. To convince yourself that Lasalle is the older librarian character, simply click on Philippe Laudenbach's page and you will see he was born in 1936.

Was the above comment useful to you?
more (22 total)

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Maléfique (2002)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
so who was Picus? spoilers and such lexploit
Trailer saidwhat
Lovecraft connection ? dsnasa1
Name of movie ilovespam-4
more

Recommendations

If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends:
- - - - -
The Mummy Stardust Kucch To Hai San Paolo Suspect Zero
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
IMDb User Rating:
Show more recommendations

Related Links

Full cast and crew Company credits External reviews
IMDb Fantasy section IMDb France section Add this title to MyMovies

You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.