A taut, yet slow moving thriller, this film is Xavier Gens most recent effort after his mainstream breakthrough, Hitman. Set in the not too distant future in France, the streets are overrun with violence. A group of small-time crooks use the riots to setup a heist; but when things go sour; the gang splits up and arranges to meet up at a seedy hotel on the French border. Unknown to the crooks is that the hotel is run by a bunch of neo-Nazi cannibals who have an agenda of their own involving torture, mutilation, murder and making new additions to the “family”.

An acceptable companion to the recent wave of French horror movies, Frontier(s) is more so a thriller than a horror movie, it just happens to feature some brutally violent scenes. As the group of crooks settles into the hotel, the sense of dread is always looming, with a couple of honey traps used as bait to lure the two male leads to their fate, we begin to realise the family’s motives. The female gang member, who we know from the opening credits, is with child, becomes the focus of attention for the duration of the movie; the other guys unfortunately cop the brunt of the family’s nastiness.

Torture seems to be the popular theme for recent horror movies, with some succeeding, Captivity & Martyrs, and some failing miserably, Hostel 2, Saw franchise, thus falling into the “gorno” category. Sure there are some savage scenes, with the bolt-cutters to Achilles tendons and a guy stuck in a compression chamber a standout, however it does take about half an hour for the blood to spill. For the rest of the film things play out smooth enough, but the main let down is the musical score, coming across a bit heavy handed in some scenes and not really suiting the pace of the film. Some great gore scenes and well some well shot chases, as well as a claustrophobic tunnel scene, but as I said earlier this is more so a thriller than a horror movie.

As the body count rises and the satisfactory finale peaks, I wonder if it was really worth purchasing.  Some high points and some low points, mainly the clunky musical score, and the unnecessary reliance on everything to be shot in the dark, Xavier Gens is definitely a stylish director, as anyone who has seen Hitman will know, he has an eye for tricky aerial camera work, but his execution of some scenes is a bit clumsy. So maybe horror isn’t his thing, but this is a good enough way to pass time on a Sunday afternoon.

Available now from: jbhifionline.com.au

Written by ‘Los Skullptor’ © Copyright 2009 Fright Sniper Entertainment, All Rights Reserved.