Based on a short Twitter exchange with Paul Soter a few months ago (the red-headed adorable member of Broken Lizard, who brought us Super Troopers and Beerfest), I decided to give a French horror movie a try, despite the fact that, in the past, I’ve abhorred French horror.
Honestly, I can’t say whether I regret it or not.
L’Interieur is about a pregnant woman, Sarah. She and her husband get into a car accident – she and their unborn baby survive, he does not. Flash forward a few months and Sarah discusses her scheduled delivery with the doctor. I don’t think it’s a c-section but apparently the delivery WILL be happening the next morning. All she needs to do is go home and get some rest.
The best laid plans…
Later that evening, there’s a knock at Sarah’s door. A woman claims her car has broken down and needs to use the phone. Wisely, Sarah doesn’t allow strangers into her home but this woman will not take ‘no’ for an answer. She breaks in, subdues Sarah, ties her to the bed, and THEN the weird shit begins to happen.
The woman knows everything about Sarah – the accident, her husband’s death, and that Sarah can’t give her child a decent life, not on her own. She’ll take Sarah’s unborn baby instead. By any means possible.
For the next several hours, the game of cat and mouse plays out between the two women. And god help anyone who gets in the way – Sarah’s mom, her boss, a couple of cops with a vandal suspect in tow, the cat…
Will Sarah be able to protect her unborn child?
Even as I write this, I can’t get a firm grasp on how I feel about this movie. I suppose because there are images and plot ideas still stuck in my brain, the movie did what it set out to do: affect the viewer. Though it’s obvious the extra characters were there as simple fodder for the bat-shit crazy cannon, it wasn’t hard to ignore them. Sometimes you do just need those sacrifices to prove what your main character is thinking: no one will get in my way.
Part of me did feel sorry for Sarah. She did just lose her husband a few months earlier and what woman wouldn’t be sad and have those moments of doubt of her ability to raise a dead man’s child. But her morose and rude attitude, toward everyone, was tiresome. I didn’t find myself sympathizing with her too much.
The life and death struggle between the two women was a pretty good ballet to witness. The persistent brutality of the crazy lady makes the viewer think “…and you want to raise a baby?? Whasswrongwitchu??”
The final scene is an absolute hammer over the head of disgust and gore and OMGWTF! But in a strange sense, it felt right and was the only way to end the movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment