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[Peter Neal]

I did a little search for a thread on this slice of French mainstream horror, but couldn't find one. :'(

How does it fare with the LoveLockAndLoud crowd?

Here are my thoughts, taken from my review, which I originally posted over at the "Shameless" board:

"Frontier(s)"

Good horror always tends to make a more or less hidden comment about the politics or social climate of its time, "Frontier(s)" actually goes a step further and kickstarts its story in the midst of the violent riots in France with their burning cars and brutal police force, which probably still linger in the public memory from the news reports and most certainly have left a lasting impression as symbols for the loss of safety and troubling social issues deep within the society in the minds of the French audience.
An inspired and very effective choice to open an otherwise quite by-the-numbers EU stab at the "Backwoods" genre, which feels much fresher at the beginning when we follow our young and criminal protagonists on their escape which'll lead them to one of those run down motels close to the border, which might make you as the viewer sense the direction things are going to take a bit earlier than the characters.
"Frontier(s)" resorts to the good old chestnut of the "Evil Germans" as the demented, cannibalistic baddies, but with worn out names like "Goetz", "Hans" and "Carl" and French actors giving us a taste of how not to pronounce German properly, it's hard to take any of this seriously- even as a German horror fan.
The movie has a very slick look and nothing's wrong with the pacing or the bloodshed, which should meet your expectations of a current French genre outing.
But IFyou're really anticipating something as gripping and classy as "Haute Tension" or "Inside" you're in for a minor disappointment.....but so what?
We could use more European shockers like "Frontier(s)"- much more!

****

[Hans]

My take on this one and really the whole kidnapping/torture genre is--I completely missed the boat on this genre.  I find the overwhelming majority of these films repetitive and boring.  I agree w/Peter that the opening of Frontiere(s) is quite good and was a good setup for the film.  However, the film was a little bit of every film that had preceded it--Hostel, Saw, TCM (remake), etc.  A much better film, imo, is Sheitan w/Vincent Cassel, which shares a v. similar theme and storyline.  Frontiere(s) was not for me, though.

[IL COMMISSARIO]

I watched for the first time last night. I thought it was a well shot, nasty little flick. I quickly lost interest though, for the first 15 minutes or so. All the shaky camera work got on my nerves and thought having to relate to a bunch of criminals being slaughtered was a bit much to ask but nonetheless, the real villains of the piece made up for that. I didn't pay much attention to the riffing of past similar films as the Nazi angle lent the film a slightly fresh twist even though the dinner scene reminded me a lot of the dinner scene in GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1976). There's also a bit of that awful excuse of an homage, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES present with all the "children" that live in the mine. There's also a bit of the similar AMERICAN GOTHIC (1989) wherein the crazy family try to initiate the last survivor into the "family" only to have the lone female turn the tables on her attackers. The onslaught of gore eventually became overkill but I think that was the directors intentions and the flick is a tad too long at 108 minutes. I'd recommend it but I think other French gorefests like HIGH TENSION and INSIDE are better.

[grantwal]

I really enjoyed this one. Derivative yes, but well made and plenty of the old red stuff flowing. For the record I noticed bits that had similarities to The Descent, Hills have eyes remake, TCM, etc. but that's not necessarily a bad thing in my book as it was done well.

[streetcleaner]

I liked the movie too for some reason. It looked for me a bit like to take the old school to the new school horror.
The Frenchmen are releasing good stuff in the meanwhile (Inside,...)

[Mr White]

Entertaining but i didn`t find it particularly original. It was kinda hard to sympathise with the 'good' guys too.

[broonage]

I thought the whole German link was hilarious.