Sheitan (2006)

A group of youngsters go out to a disco on Christmas Eve and accidentally run into a shepherd who has prepared himself for a night of pure insanity.

Director:

Kim Chapiron

Writers:

Christian Chapiron, Kim Chapiron

Stars:

Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthélémy, Roxane Mesquida

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vincent Cassel	...	Joseph / Joseph's Wife
Olivier Barthélémy	...	Bart (as Olivier Barthelemy)
Roxane Mesquida	...	Eve
Nico Le Phat Tan	...	Thaï (as Nicolas Le Phat Tan)
Leïla Bekhti	...	Yasmine
Ladj Ly	...	Ladj
Julie-Marie Parmentier	...	Jeanne
Gérald Thomassin	...	Maurice
Quentin Lasbazeilles	...	Gilou
Guillaume Bacquet	...	Bébert
Alexandre Borrel	...	Jérôme
Georgette Crochon	...	Marie
François Levantal	...	Le pompiste / Le chirurgien
Monica Bellucci	...	La belle vampiresse
Oxmo Puccino	...	Client boîte

Storyline

On Christmas Eve, in the Styxx Club in Paris, the troublemaker Bart and his scum friends, Thaï and Ladj, meet the bartender Yasmine and the customer Eve, and after a fight of Bart in the nightclub, Eve invites the group to go to her house in the country. While on the road near the cottage, they are introduced by Eve to the weird shepherd and housekeeper, Joseph, whose wife is pregnant. Joseph feels a sort of attraction for Bart, and during this Christmas night, Joseph discloses his real intentions.

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Plot Keywords:

chewing with one's mouth open | christmas | fight | disco | club | 

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Taglines:

Christmas Eve...

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [Russia]

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

1 February 2006 (France)

Also Known As:

Satan

Box Office

Budget:

€2,700,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

120 Films, La Chauve Souris, StudioCanal

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sheitan also means devil in Arabic.

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Crazy Credits

A few seconds after the credits start, a subliminal pornographic frame is inserted.

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Connections

References Scarface (1983)

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Soundtracks

Ombre Elles
by Gnawa Diffusion
© 2006 120 Films / La Chauve-Souris / Because Music

User Reviews

Truly different story with a horrific ending.

If you took the movies The Devil's Rejects, The Hills Have Eyes, Rosemary's Baby, and Psycho, and then stuck them in a blender, your end result just might be Sheitan, the second film from French Director Kim Chapiron.

The film revolves mostly around three men, who after a night of partying at the local discotheque, meet up with a young girl named Eve. Eve encourages the three friends (plus a girlfriend of the three men) to come to the countryside, to stay at her house. Shortly before arriving at the house the characters meet up with Joseph, the supremely creepy housekeeper to the rundown manor (played by French actor Vincent Cassel), where Eve lives. A very minimalist plot, but if this were a Hollywood movie, the housekeeper would have brutally murdered the guests one by one, and this would have been your run of the mill slasher flick.. But this is not a Hollywood movie, and it's not a slasher flick, and this is what makes Sheitan so refreshingly different. The film instead elects to take the viewer on a different path, which turns out to be infinitely more disturbing. Instead of becoming a blood bath, Sheitan starts out quite normally, but at the same time the viewer is left with the thought in the back of their head, "What is wrong with these people." From then on the film seamlessly balances black humor with a genuine creepiness, which continues up to the very end, and then brace yourself. The film closes with an extremely disturbing 15 minutes or so, of family dysfunction on a grand level.

The acting isn't especially well done, but is adequate for the story. The cinematography is pretty straight forward and typical, although the opening features some Mtv inspired, fast paced camera work, but the film still works well regardless of these two-weaknesses.

The only real weakness the film has, is as the credits roll, the viewer is still left with a lot of un-answered questions. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorite films have open-ended conclusions, but in Sheitan, some of the unanswered questions involve major plot points, and undoubtedly some viewers will be frustrated by this.

All in all, the film works quite well. If you're a fun of twisted, strange, disturbing movies, Sheitan is for you, if demented films aren't your thing avoid it, and go rent Bambi instead.

My rating 8 out of 10. (Truly different story, with a horrific ending, but too much Ambiguity )