'À l'intérieur' pulls off a surprising feat: it manages to take a concept that is, by its' very premise, provocative, and make it remarkably uninvolving. It performs this reverse alchemy by an unrelenting series of missteps, in both minor details and choices that the characters make, or don't make. Every time you get close to being sucked in by the action, you are suddenly ripped out of it by something that draws attention to the contrivance and implausibility.
Having said that, I still enjoyed the film due to the performance of the two leads and the remarkable, atmospheric direction. In fact, all of the actors were fine, doing their best with what they had to work with. In the end, this is a gore-fest, and at that the creators succeeded in spades.
I can't recommend this to anyone looking for an involving story or the kind of suspense that demands that you lose yourself in the film, but if you're looking for an 82 minute ride through a great looking charnel house, you could do a lot worse.
