Thursday, June 02, 2011
Michael Allen
Director/writer: Franck Richard.
La Meute or The Pack attended Cannes 2010 and the film has also been to the Fantasia Film Festival, as well. This is director Franck Richard's first feature film and there are many of the film elements here that make French horror so unique. There are buckets of blood and gore, desolate farmlands and one young woman trying to escape a living nightmare. This is a pretty straight forward horror thriller, with one or two clever moments added in, from a clever cop, which creates much of the interesting conflict.
Charlotte (Emilie Dequenne) sets off on a driving adventure. Along the way she meets a group of bi-sexual bikers and a quiet hitchhiker. Remember horror fans, never pick up hitchhikers! This mysterious traveller disappears in to the washroom of La Spack's (Yolande Moreau) rundown diner. Then, Charlotte looks for her new friend, but she finds a clubbing instead. Not much later, she is confined, bled and then used to feed a group of sightless monsters. This film is mostly predictable, with really only one character showing some wits.
A retired detective (Philippe Nahon) looks for Charlotte, after noticing her disappearance from the diner. He follows the villain La Spack to her abode. Here, she spikes his drink with a sleeping agent and Detective Chinaski shows himself to be a little more aware than La Spack gives him credit for. The tables are turned and soon Chinaski and La Spack are in a cage match. One of the more interesting elements of La Meute is how the power shifts from one character to the other. When La Spack is down, she is only out for a few moments. Shortly, the villains are running the show again.
Richard creates an interesting creature, unleashed from the abyss. In the film, miners were killed below ground, when the prospectors "dug too deep." The equation of monsters rising from the depths of the earth is pre-Christian; here, these hellish burrowers look part bat, part zombie and all grotesque. Richard has created an interesting mythos, of evil rising from the depths, in search of those despoiling the land. The final battle between the mole people and the surviving cast is well shot and suitably exciting.
There are no happy ending heres and The Pack is a mostly enjoyable time, but there is no degree of suspense here or unpredictability. The casting is correct and the performances are good, while slightly subdued. As well, for a first film, this is good solid step into the horror genre. However, the comedy elements are pushed too much to the background and the horror elements seem too overdone e.g. overly gory. In the end, this film is a worthwhile watch; just don't expect the mole people to spawn a franchise.
Overall: 6.5 out of 10 (a good first outing, lots of gore, a good back and forth between Chinaski and La Spack).
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Posted in: 2011,french,french horror films,movie poster,movie review,zombie
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