Director: Julien Maury & Alex Bustillo
Script: Alexandre Bustillo
Cast: Beatrice Dalle, Alysson Paradis, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Francis-Regis Marchasson, Nathalie Roussel, Aymon Saidi
Running time: 82.5 minutes
Year: 2007
Certificate: 18
Back in the Noughties several French films were released – including Inside (2007) – that are often lumped together under the lose banner of the New French Extremity Movement. Other titles grouped into this sub-genre were Baise-moi (2000), Irreversible (2002), Haute Tension (aka Switchblade Romance) (2003), Calvaire (aka The Ordeal) (2004), Ils (aka Them) (2006), Frontier(s) (2007) and Martyrs (2008). Inside was certainly one of the more extreme films on this list; a list, which had the films on it been released twenty years earlier, would have almost certainly seen all of them languishing on a different kind of list, namely the DPP’s now infamous video nasty list. How things have changed!
The story of Inside is a simple one. Expectant mother, Sarah (Alysson Paradis), is involved in a car accident, which sees her partner killed and the occupants of the other car left either dead or dying. Months later and we find Sarah struggling to come to terms with what has happened to her, but she’s still carrying a healthy child inside her womb. Her doctor is pleased with her progress, while her mother fusses over her so she insists on getting her boss, the editor of a newspaper that she works at, (as a photographer), to drive her home. Once back home, in her very quiet neighbourhood, she finds herself menaced by a strange woman who seems to know everything about her and who seems set on taking Sarah’s child as her own, whatever the cost.
The film’s set-up is dispensed with quite quickly, leaving the bulk of the action to occur within the confines of one house and its’ grounds. The number of characters is also very small, with just a few brief encounters played out mostly to increase the graphic body-count. Talking of which, once the murders start occurring the film becomes relentless in its depiction of human cruelty, and pulls no punches in the way that it shares the carnage that’s pushed front and centre for us all to wince at.
While I don’t want to give too much away about the final act, all I will say is there are twists and turns aplenty and I would recommend for the viewer not to get too attached to any one character as most don’t stick around for long. Plus, just when you think things can’t get any worse for our already depressed heroine, they do, but not always in the way you might think.
The two leads (Beatrice Dalle and Alysson Paradis) do extremely well in depicting two strong women who both want the same thing (a baby) and who will fight to the death to meet that need. Other characters are peripheral, but are played well by the highly competent cast. I particularly enjoyed Aymon Saidi’s performance as the poor prisoner dragged into grave danger by the cops transporting him to the police station.
Francois-Edes Chanfrault’s music score really suits the film, and remains strongest during the sections played out through a string section. Visually the film is cleverly shot by cinemaphotographer, Laurent Barė (Frontiers), especially since he obviously had limited space to work in, although I wasn’t so keen on some of the film’s colour grade, especially in the earlier sections, and some of the editing choices were more irritating than impressive.
Inside met with very mixed reviews during its initial release, but it has since garnered many supporters, especially from the horror community. I originally saw it at a film festival and, like many, was shocked by what I saw, and all these years later Inside still has the power to shock its audiences, which must be an acknowledgement of the skills of the two novice filmmakers who created this maternal monster in the first place. Interestingly they credit Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) as being an major inspiration.
Inside is being distributed by Second Sight on Blu-ray. There are a number of substantial extras included in the package, namely:
Audio Commentary by Anna Bogutskaya, a writer for Second Time Releases, a podcaster and fan of French Extreme cinema. This is an interesting commentary that focuses the central themes of the film.
Audio Commentary by Elena Lazic, a French freelance writer, writing for the Online Film Magazine. Elena admits to first seeing the film as a non-horror fan, (she’s been converted since), and tends to comment more on what’s on the screen than Anna does, but Elena still has plenty of interest to say.
First born – interview with co-writers & directors Alex Bustillo and Julian Maury (31.5 mins) – The two filmmakers talk about the film’s origins – for example, the intruder was originally going to be a serial killer – how they storyboarded the whole film and how they wanted it to be a commercial film, but not in an American way.
Labour pains – interview with actress Alysson Paradis (14.5 mins) – Alysson is clearly passionate about the film and explains how she admired the fact that the directors went all the way, but not in a trashy B-movie kind of way. She also describes Beatrice Dalle as a “lovely little elf” in real life.
A New Extreme – an interview with producer Frank Ribiėre (22 mins) – He talks about how he got involved – in his case because he really liked the tagline, namely “Open your door and open your belly”, and how Dimension Films had bought up the English speaking rights after only seeing the 40 second trailer. Looking back he thinks Inside is perhaps too extreme and prefers a film that he did with the filmmakers later, namely Livide, which is more of a giallo.
Womb raider – An interview with Cinemaphotographer Laurent Barės (19 mins) – Laurent explains that he wasn’t their first choice, but he got the gig after doing Frontiers, which was a much more chaotic shoot than Inside.
Reel Action –An interview with stunt coordinator Emmanuel Lenzi (14.5 mins) – Emmanuel turns out to be a cinephile and a horror fan who ended up being the 2nd unit director on the film.
The Birth of Mother – Jena Adams on Inside. (15 mins) Jena explains some of the underlying themes related to the film, talks about her own experiences surrounding motherhood and how she found Inside quite cathartic. Some of her theories seem like a bit of a reach though.
70 page book with new essays by Chad Collins, Kat Ellinger, Annie Rose Malamet and Hannah Strong (I wasn’t sent this so can’t comment on it)
6 collector’s art cards (as above)
