Waiting in town for a friend to arrive in order to go for an hour long drive to Ikea (!) With her,I decided to pass the time by looking in a local DVD shop. Getting to the end of a terrible DVD row,I was surprised to find that the shelf actually had an interesting title,which led to me getting ready to meet them.
The plot:
Driving home, Clémentine spots a smashed up car lying by the side of the road (unknown to Clémentine,the car had contained a mum and daughter,who have both been brutally killed by a gang) Putting questions of the car to one side, Clémentine relaxes with her boyfriend Lucas in their country house.During the night, Clémentine and Lucas start to hear,strange,disturbing noises from the outside.Looking out of the window,Lucas and Clémentine spot a gang lurking in the shadows,who wants them to play.
View on the film:
Running a lean & (pretty) mean 74 minutes,the screenplay by co- writers/directors David Moreau & Xavier Palud chops into an unexpected slow-burn approach,which give Palud and Moreau to close off the couple with horrific isolation. Staying vague over the motive of the baddies,the writers brilliant limit the full appearance of the gang,to instead make them run psychological chills around the screen,which gives the bursts of violence from the couple and the gang a brittle brutality.
Shot in a real sprawling old estate in Romania,directors Moreau & Palud take full advantage of the vast location with tightly coiled tracking shots from every side of the house raining the claustrophobia down on Lucas and Clémentine.Hitting out in grainy digital,the directors and cinematographer Axel Cosnefroy cleverly use the format to give the title a grime-covered chiller atmosphere,by the grainy format rolling the shadows round the ankles of Clémentine (played by a great,hard nails Olivia Bonamy-who suffered from claustrophobia during production) and Lucas, (played by a very good,rugged Michaël Cohen) as they try to outplay them who want to play most.
The plot:
Driving home, Clémentine spots a smashed up car lying by the side of the road (unknown to Clémentine,the car had contained a mum and daughter,who have both been brutally killed by a gang) Putting questions of the car to one side, Clémentine relaxes with her boyfriend Lucas in their country house.During the night, Clémentine and Lucas start to hear,strange,disturbing noises from the outside.Looking out of the window,Lucas and Clémentine spot a gang lurking in the shadows,who wants them to play.
View on the film:
Running a lean & (pretty) mean 74 minutes,the screenplay by co- writers/directors David Moreau & Xavier Palud chops into an unexpected slow-burn approach,which give Palud and Moreau to close off the couple with horrific isolation. Staying vague over the motive of the baddies,the writers brilliant limit the full appearance of the gang,to instead make them run psychological chills around the screen,which gives the bursts of violence from the couple and the gang a brittle brutality.
Shot in a real sprawling old estate in Romania,directors Moreau & Palud take full advantage of the vast location with tightly coiled tracking shots from every side of the house raining the claustrophobia down on Lucas and Clémentine.Hitting out in grainy digital,the directors and cinematographer Axel Cosnefroy cleverly use the format to give the title a grime-covered chiller atmosphere,by the grainy format rolling the shadows round the ankles of Clémentine (played by a great,hard nails Olivia Bonamy-who suffered from claustrophobia during production) and Lucas, (played by a very good,rugged Michaël Cohen) as they try to outplay them who want to play most.