The Pack (2010)
"La meute" (original title)

In the middle of a snowy no man's land, Charlotte picks up Max, a hitchhiker; they stop in a truck-stop restaurant, and when Max doesn't come back from the bathroom, Charlotte starts ... See full summary »

Director:

Franck Richard

Writer:

Franck Richard

Stars:

Yolande Moreau, Émilie Dequenne, Benjamin Biolay

3 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yolande Moreau	...	La Spack
Émilie Dequenne	...	Charlotte Massot
Benjamin Biolay	...	Max
Philippe Nahon	...	Chinaski
Matthias Schoenaerts	...	Le Gothique en toc
Ian Fonteyn	...	Tofu
Georges Lini	...	Motard 1
Philippe Résimont	...	Motard 2
Brice Fournier	...	Motard 3 (John Grizzly)
Nicolas Leroy	...	Golem 1
Mathieu Bouteligier	...	Golem 2
François Doms	...	Golem 3
Benoît Vivien	...	Golem 4
Eric Godon	...	Jean-Jean
Joris Strickx	...	Blé

Storyline

In the middle of a snowy no man's land, Charlotte picks up Max, a hitchhiker; they stop in a truck-stop restaurant, and when Max doesn't come back from the bathroom, Charlotte starts looking for him in vain. She decides to return during the night but gets kidnapped by the bartender, La Spack, who turns out to be Max's mother and needs to feed her kids, 'The pack', a bunch of blood lusting ghouls. Charlotte now faces a terrifying reality: these ghouls are already dead... and hungry. Alone and in the middle of nowhere, she quickly realizes... she's next on the menu!

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Plot Keywords:

head wound | splatter | eaten alive | diner | burning house | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody horror violence and language including sexual references

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp]

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French

Release Date:

29 September 2010 (France)

Also Known As:

The Pack

Company Credits

Production Co:

La Fabrique 2, BE-FILMS, Canal+

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

References Gremlins (1984)

User Reviews

*Almost* a new French horror classic…

Particularly since the new Millennium, France is by far THE nation to keep under close monitoring when it comes to the release of original, boundary-breaking and downright shocking new movies in the horror genre! They released already a handful of instant classics, like "High Tension", "Inside", "Frontier(s)" and "Martyrs" and a fair bunch of titles that are far more worthwhile to check out than the average American or Asian accomplishments. Naturally, of course, they also have their share of epic failures and the inevitable "close-but-no-cigar" efforts. "The Pack", a co-production with Belgium - would fit right into this last category. Writer/director Franck Richard mixes old and tiresome genre clichés with fresh and courageous ideas, and the overall result is a massively uneven and quirky film. What starts out as a seemingly commonplace rural road horror movie abruptly alters into something unclassifiable; partially survival flick and partially zombie adventure. But not your typical kind of flesh-eating rotten corpses, but more like the pioneering type of zombies as they featured in "White Zombie", "I walked with a Zombie" and "Plague of the Zombies". The sudden change of course I found titillating, but these most fascinating parts of the screenplay are underdeveloped and chaotic. Perhaps Richard shouldn't have wasted his (and our) time with the overlong, dull and derivative first half and should have moved on to the more creative and ingenious plot a lot quicker. But the main issue of "The Pack", according to yours truly at least, lies with the mundane character development and ineffective atmosphere building. Lead chick Charlotte is another headstrong and rebellious feminist on the run for something which we don't know. She picks up a mysterious and not-so-handsome stranger whose silence clearly reveals a hidden agenda. They encounter psychopathic bikers, a creepy corpulent woman owning a ramshackle truck-stop diner and a goofy old guy with a funny T-shirt. These are hardly new and exciting characters to feature in a horror movie and thus you set your expectations quite low from the beginning already. The numerous attempts to insert black humor completely miss their effect and Franck Richard also doesn't make full use of the morbid set pieces and filming locations. The ghouls (and the brief info we receive of their background) compensate for part of the disappointment, though. They're very disturbing and petrifying monsters to behold. They actually look quite Clive Barkeresque, if you ask me. There's some decent acting as well, most notably from Yolande Moreau as "La Spack" and the terrific Philippe Nahon, whom genre fanatics will certainly recognize immediately from "Haute Tension", "Irréversible", "Seul Contre Tous" and "Calvaire".