"I leave you to discover, through covered eyes, the gut-splattering delirium to come."-Nathan Lee, VILLAGE VOICE
"For those who like their blood by the barrelful, INSIDE is just the ticket. Awash in red liquid that drips, oozes, spurts and pours, pic restarts the French gore genre with an over-the-top sadism sure to please fans of schlock horror."
-Jay Weissberg, VARIETY
"INSIDE is an instant modern classic en francais, along the lines of HAUTE TENSION, IRREVERSIBLE, and DANS MA PEAU. Don't miss it."
-Staci Layne Wilson, HORROR.COMA prime example of the new extreme horror genre currently making its way out of Europe. Taking gore to a new level, these films are often linked to American 'torture porn' like SAW and HOSTEL, yet different. Not an 'art film' like TROUBLE EVERY DAY or IN MY SKIN, but not artless by any means, INSIDE shows a parallel movement in French Cinema toward the extreme. Despite their obvious differences, there are numerous similarities in theme, the permeability of skin, and form, techniques used to cinematically express pain, to the previous films under analysis.
Suggested Secondary Screenings: MARTYRS (Pascal Laugier, 2008), THEM (David Moreau and Xavier Palud, 2006), FRONTIER(S) (Xavier Gens, 2007)
Suggested Secondary Screenings: MARTYRS (Pascal Laugier, 2008), THEM (David Moreau and Xavier Palud, 2006), FRONTIER(S) (Xavier Gens, 2007)
Inside
ReplyDeleteSo I really did not think that “In My Skin” could be topped, but guess what? It was. This movie was so violent and gruesome I literally had to put my hand over the screen while watching it. I do not know how I got through that entire movie. I honestly wanted to turn it off since the first twenty minutes where the psycho woman was gliding the scissors up and down Sarah’s stomach. For some reason pregnant stomachs already freak me out, so to add violence like this to it just makes me want to crawl into a little ball and hide from the world. I just want to point out the size of the scissors that this woman just randomly found in the bathroom I mean who has scissors that big in their bathroom? It is completely weird. I do not even know I am in pain from this film, and I don’t think I have ever had a film cause me pain. Well I guess all the saw movies and hostel, but I just turned those off because don’t get me wrong I love horror films, but those films torture their audience just like this one did. I thought this film started out amazing with the car crash and the suspense scenes in the house, but once the violence started I wanted nothing more then to get out of there. The only reason I kept watching was because it is part of this class, but I can guarantee this will not happen again.
Also the scene before the woman cutting her stomach open was that just thrown in to cause complete chaos in the audience? Why was it that this man almost gave this woman a miscarriage? I did not understand his motives at all besides the fact that he had a pair of nine-inch scissors stabbed through his skull and brain, so I guess he does not need a reason given what he had been through.
Another part of the film that really through me off was how Sarah was staying alive. I mean first off she was in labor through the majority of the film. She was stabbed in the face, she was smacked across the face with a toaster I mean I really could not believe she was alive. Not to mention the emotional stress of first killing her mother and then watching everyone who was trying to help her die one by one. It was just awful I honestly just wanted her to go ahead and die, because I did not want her to suffer anymore.
All in all, I thought that the filmmakers did a good job the make-up and special effects were good, the shots were beautiful, the acting was amazing, but I just could not wait for the film to end. I kept on looking at how much time was left, because it was just torture watching, which is what I believe the filmmakers were going for, so hats off to them.
First off, I loved this movie. It was so intense at every second I couldn't stop watching. It had the right amount of suspense, sadness, longing, imagination, violence, blood and unexpectedness all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI saw this movie before watching Trouble Every Day so Beatrice Dalle didn't seem like such a crazy bitch after having seen this. This movie just gave me facts, and then BOOM took them away just like that.
It started off with really cool rivers of blood and then, not only did it have beautiful cinematography, but the art direction was amazing.
The contrast between the white and pure bathroom with the dark and invaded rest of the house, just looked wonderful.
I'll give you a rain check on the rest of the post... My show is about to start. You should come watch it.
Sat at 2p and 8p and
Sun at 2p!
I’m not surprised at all at how badly I handled this movie. My nervous system was not meant for horror films. Still, I sucked it up and forced someone to watch it with me. It’s not that it wasn’t a bad movie, I’m sure if I were a horror fan I would have thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s an interesting concept and the killer is certainly a new idea. However, I just wasn’t meant to appreciate the finer things about the horror genre. My timid mind can’t overcome the nerves to actually examine the movie. The redeeming thing about this whole viewing experience was that there were some genuinely laughable moments – self-inflicted tracheotomy; the ridiculous amount of blood-loss without fainting? It’s the same issue I had with In My Skin. The movie did feel a little long though but I was really happy that they explained her reason for going after the baby because I feel like had they gone without an explanation it would have just seemed like mindless, callous torture. I’d liked knowing that there was genuine motivation behind her actions.
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ReplyDeleteI guess I will start by saying that this movie has some serious balls. It does not shy away from anything, nor does it cut away. Good lord is this movie brutal in every sense of the word. Aside from that amazing fact (as I am a bit of a gorehound), it is actually really well done. The movie looks phenomenal, and really establishes its mood well. I even like the addition to fog in the house. Is is unreasonable, yes, but it looks awesome and this is a horror movie so who cares? The movie was also smart enough to contain itself in one location. Did this lead to somewhat unbelievable plot points and the classic “dumb policeman moves” that have plagued horror movies? Yes it did, but I can put logic aside in moments like that if it helps the movie, and keeping one character in a bathroom for a large portion of the movie and the whole thing contained to a house was certainly the correct choice.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the movie defied some of my expectations too. When the mother is threatening her child with the knife, our bad guy just takes a freaking toaster and owns her in the face. This was right after the self tracheotomy. I do think that it made no sense for her to know how to do it or to think of it, but it was amazingly cool so I don't care. I also like that during the scenes they show the trauma and the actions happening from inside the womb, which is amazing and makes you remember that there is a baby involved.
In class Sam said that she had read that there is a theory that both women are actually just the mother, and that actually makes the movie very interesting. You can definitely make that case, and it makes all the moments in the movie much more perverse. There are a few moments that don't make that completely work, like the police at the door or her boss visiting and not knowing who she is, and the mother coming too. I think you could also go with them being the two sides of the mothers personality. The side that doesn't want to have the baby, and the side that has this primal urge to keep the baby no matter what.
Overall I think it is a very effective horror movies, and one of the better ones I have seen that doesn't fear going all out. The only issue I had is that they explained the motivation, whereas I would have rather it just have been a woman who wanted that baby and had no extra motive to pick her. She would still have an objective, but she would be more crazy and the randomness makes it scary as all hell.
As a fan of the horror genre, I felt Inside did an excellent job of frightening it's audience and sending shivers done our spines. The film itself, or I guess this would be more of a movie this it is meant for entertainment, was not frightening but played more on the audiences squirm factor. There is a lot of blood, I mean a LOT of blood in this movie. Literally in one scene, the stair case becomes a waterfall of gooshy, dark red, blood. Thank God that wasn't in Willy Wonka. What I loved about this film was how the violence was so incredibly different from what I've seen in horror movies. You could tell the writers had fun thinking of ways to hurt the victims in the story. Another factor that fascinates me is how our main female lead puts up a hell of a fight against Le Femme character. This is one pregnant lady you do not want to mess with. She is the first female character in a horror movie that I feel can actually stand her ground and fight off a villain. She doesn't need a man to rescue her, just a cigarette and a bottle of hair spray. Like any film, it has it's flaws in the story, but they can easily be ignored since it is meant to be fun and a thrill ride.
ReplyDeleteOut of all of the movies we have watched, Inside definitely felt the most “American” to me (even though Funny Games and Afterschool were in English), which is probably why I would say this was one of the most “enjoyable” movies we have watched so far. It felt like your typical, gory Hollywood horror movie in which one character has the skill and precision to kill 6 people in one night (which includes 3 cops) and perform a caesarean section all with a pair of scissors, a knitting needle, and a toaster. For such a low budget movie, I thought they did a real awesome job with all of the gore and the animated baby sequences. This movie definitely reminded me in look and feel of the SAW franchise (stuck in a white bathroom anyone?). The only part that looked a little cheesy was the impromptu flamethrower scene. Otherwise, this was an all around solid horror film.
ReplyDeleteI have admitted my dislike of gore-fest horror films in these journal entries before. I was greatly surprised at how much I actually enjoyed watching this film. Maybe it was that we had a room full of people or the reactions of the people walking by our screening room in the library, but the viewing of the film has been on of the best. The film itself has all the typical conventions of a brutal horror film. Idiot police officers (who leave the front door open, really!?!?!): check. Emotionally traumatized who must find the courage to stand against an enemy in order to protect the thing she originally rejected: check. Batshit crazy purpose driven sadist: check. BUT what I really enjoyed about the film were the conventions that most horror films shy away from. Inside has a great showdown, but until that point there is rarely the feeling that Sara is alone in the house with the constant entering and killing of family, friends, and strangers. For a horror film about the relationship between two women, there certainly were a lot of innocent bystanders. That's another thing, I loved that the killer was a woman. I think that her dramatic shift from loving mother-to-be to murdering psychopath hit harder than any other super-human baddie in a slasher film ever could. I am not saying this is a perfect movie, far from it, but I think if American filmmakers took a page out of this film's book, we have the potential to join the ranks of the best horror films. The film like it could easily be remade in English, though it would probably become one of those cult films that was never released in theaters because honestly I don't think the general American public would want to watch a woman have her stomach cut open with a pair of scissors. But I could definitely see it in one of the extreme Horror film festivals that come out around Halloween every year.
ReplyDeleteOverall, it was definitely the most fast-paced film we have watched this semester. I could never say that I found parts boring, which is always important to me when it comes to watching a film. So, as horror films go I have to say that it hooked me from the start, even with the rivers of blood.
Even compared to Denis’s “Trouble Every Day,” I thought “Inside” had the most explicit display of blood we’ve seen so far. The difference is that I thought “Inside” showed it more conventionally. I can really understand the criticism that the film is fulfilling a blood-lust of sorts. And I think that we might finally have crossed into genre filmmaking – something that’s been looming over these past few screenings. As such, I found it much easier to enjoy the film and I wasn’t really put off by the gruesome images. However, by the end of the film, I felt a little unsatisfied. I didn’t feel the profound effect that all the other screenings had on me – a prominent characteristic in the experience of watching these films. When I finished watching it, I could just move on and erase it from my mind; nothing really urged me to reflect on what I’ve seen or resolve anything left open-ended. I guess that this film just kind of pales in comparison to the other films we’ve screened.
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