Inside (aka À l'intérieur) (2007) Review

Written by: BlackTequilaKiss   

Inside has broken me. It has pushed me to the envelope and showed me not all movies are easily forgettable. It is not a favourite but it did the job of making me uneasy and it left me with many questions. Do I like this? I am torn, well and truly.

In it's favour is the plot which is consistent, concise and pretty straight to the chase, what worked against it? Ironically it was the gore. Don't get me wrong I love blood for the sake of blood, I enjoy gruesome killings but there were several times during this movie where it did not so much serve a purpose, but be there for the sake of it as if to gain more audiences.

There is a portion of my heart and mind saying this is one of the better films I have seen, but another side of my mind is absolute in reminding me where the flaws existed. I guess the question is, 'To love or not to love?'

Plotline:

Four months prior to Christmas, Sarah and her husband are involved in a devastating car crash, only Sarah and her unborn child survive the crash. On Christmas Eve, she stays home alone still grieving for the loss of her husband and preparing to go to hospital the next day for delivery. However later that night a strange woman knocks on her door asking to use the phone, when Sarah refuses to let her in, the truth emerges and so begins a deadly game of cat and mouse. But this woman is intent on taking her newborn baby and will not give up without a fight, the game is far from over...

This was a tough movie to take but having read the movie regarding the plotline I was not as concerned but still this took me by surprise. It does not lack in blood or gore, it does not let you take breathe from air. But that is where my worries tend to come to the fore...

So much time is spent on the intensity of the piece that we are not given apt time to take certain factors into account. Why she is there, why she is so intent, we understand further in but do we care for her reason? I cannot honestly say I did. Furthermore we are not given time to gain more compassion for Sarah, yes there is some heartache we feel due to the circumstances leading up to what happens, but it is all such a rush I felt my compassion was only a little there.

More time to understand her character would have given me a chance to feel the horror she does as the movie unwinds. As it stands, lessened time meant I could not feel the entire plight.

With no further ado though I must pay due respect to both Alysson Paradis (Sarah) and Beatrice Dalle as La Femme. Both played their characters to full strength and put a lot of heart into their roles and kudos, it shows.

Alysson played a curious role. I liked her character but I did not see the full depth and felt at certain points she was holding back from her full potential. She had a wealth of expertise in her acting and although I loved her character for the most part, I felt as an audience member rather distant from her character. Great actress, just would love to have seen her apply herself more.

Now Beatrice Dalle. Ah, this feels strange to say but I felt myself connecting with this woman quite a bit. Despite her disturbed intellect, she was emotionally fragile and all the pain she was inflicting on to others I felt for them and her. Those gentler moments when she is reduced to tears, I felt myself breaking for her character which is odd to say since she was essentially the most evil character in the entire movie. But honestly I loved this woman and her powerhouse performance.

The music to Inside was actually beautiful. It was not overdone and even in the most shocking of scenes it kept a quiet wit about it. The focus of the piano solo, the gentle willing of the violin it all maintained a gorgeous state that never seemed to oversell itself. Stunning.

Cinematography, I cannot express how much this impressed me. I could use a plethora of words that all amount to stunning but it would be underselling the movie. From the opening frame to the car crash, the lone fire and the rain falling in silent whisper which floored me to Sarah's home, a wonderful glow of fire embers against an aged background to a house swathed in blood.

It all looked artistic and beautiful, the motion and movement of the camera was even throughout and allowed you to keep focus on even the smallest of a detail. Like I said words cannot express what this did, but it is one of the finest I have seen in some time.

The special effects (i.e. 'gore') this was the tour de force. For all the flaws it can and does possess to an extent, this literally blows that out of the water! It starts off slowly and builds up to the what is one of the bloodiest films I have seen in some time. It contains so much from a pair of scissors through an hand, to a gunshot straight to the head all the way to a perverse final and bloody act. It all looks brilliant and realistic and for some this will be the issue.

It looks too perfect and trust me in the last scene if you are not prepared you will feel the ill ail you. It is a disturbing and hard scene to take and you need to have a hard stomach to handle that moment. But nothing can be faulted by the two companies who handled this department, BR Films and FX Cinéma who did an amazing job of what was required of them.

The ending will chill you. I could not even bring myself to react I was that stunned by the final act

Like I said I am honestly torn. It is both viscerally disturbing and yet contains some beautiful cinematography. The cast do an amazing job and the story is different but it is hard to take. It is not pleasant and you cannot kid yourself that everything is fake because it takes a situation that can and has happened.

It will push you to what you think is acceptable and may even jolt your expectations. A grower? Perhaps, I am not altogether sure.

Martyrs was a shock to the system, High Tension was unrelenting but Inside has got to be the most highly disturbing of all three. It has elements of the other two movies but goes beyond what I thought was possible. The blood flows, the guts fly, watch it but do not expect something akin to the usual horror this is quite different and actually rather compelling.

I cannot comment on my status of the movie but just for the sheerness of the movie it gains an admirably 8 out of 10.

Whichever you decide, enjoy, sit back and prepare yourself. You have not seen anything quite like this yet.

Unmissable...