FRONTIER(S) (2008)

by Dave White

Who's in It: Samuel Le Bihan, Karina Testa, Aurélien Wiik, David Saracino, Chems Dahmani, Estelle Lefébure, Amélie Daure, Jean-Pierre Jorris

The Basics: Some criminals use a French riot as cover for their crime and their escape from Paris into the countryside, where they decide to hole up in … a hostel. Remember when that word just meant some place you'd stay for a night while backpacking through Europe? Now it means House of Cannibal Nazis.

What's the Deal? And though Cannibal Nazis they may be, they're not especially original Cannibal Nazis. If you're a horror fan, you've seen this sort of thing before. And you've seen this sort of thing before a lot recently. People are carved to bits, dumb victim behavior is rewarded with agonizing torture, and the blood flows like the wave pool at the water park on summer vacation.

I, Gorehound: Having said all that, I like blood. And guts. And decapitations. And gratuitous, extreme violence in horror films. There's not a "scary" movie that can't be improved by some body parts being mangled. I don't apologize for enjoying it, even though I've been berated, to my face, by other film critics for liking it all for its own sake. I don't watch football, so I guess this is my football. Anyway, there's a whole lot of that going on here, so, you know, for me that's kind of heartwarming.

How to Talk About It So You Sound All Smart: Well, see, in France they really are having some problems these days trying to figure out how to keep disenfranchised Arab youth from rioting, burning down the suburbs. And the right wing is exploiting this. So, in a way this movie is a nasty little satire, the overt, sicko version of a movie like Caché. See? It's not just an excuse to throw blood everywhere after all.

CRITICS' REVIEWS SOURCE RATING THE GIST POSITIVE REVIEWS FOR FRONTIER(S) New York Times N/A "… this creepy, contemporary gross-out also has some ideas, visual and otherwise, wedged among its sanguineous drips, swaying meat hooks and whirring table saw." NEGATIVE REVIEWS FOR FRONTIER(S) Variety N/A "… a 100-minute hemorrhage that doesn't bring anything to the operating table of torture-porn but more gore, cruelty and misery." Village Voice N/A "… as relentless as it is hateful, hammily directed, and derivative of the dreariest slop in contemporary American horror cinema." MIXED REVIEWS FOR FRONTIER(S) Onion A.V. Club C "… relentlessly ugly and derivative …" TV Guide 2½ stars/4 "… adds a dash of political spice to the flesh feast."