Opening in limited release Friday, May 9th
Cast:
Karina Testa as Yasmine
Aurélien Wiik as Alex
Patrick Ligardes as Karl
David Saracino as Tom
Maud Forget as Eva
Samuel Le Bihan as Goetz
Directed by Xavier Gens
Review:
The first thing that hardened horror fans should know about the much buzzed about survivalist horror pic Frontiere(s) is that is really isn’t all that shocking. Oh, sure – the faint of heart will find much to be alarmed by. With Achilles tendons being snipped, victims roasted alive in crematoriums, and shotgun blasts to the head, Frontiere(s) is a tough film, no question. But if you’re an old school gorehound who’s already seen it all, Frontiere(s) doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Based on its reputation, I came into Frontiere(s) expecting to be re-baptized as a gore fanatic and realized afterwards that this jaded viewer should’ve probably known better. But while Frontiere(s) wasn’t able to school me in splatter, writer/director Xavier Gens won me over with his straightforward storytelling and his respectful regard for the familiar trappings of even the grisliest horror films. This is hardcore horror done right.
Frontiere(s)‘ plot is taken straight from the Texas Chainsaw playbook, transplanted to French soil and with some political subtext to place it in historical terms. In 2002, extreme right-wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen won the first rounds of elections for the French Presidency; an event that generated fears that France was poised on a scary ideological precipice. And while Le Pen would go on to lose that election, Gens uses the political anxieties of that time to inform his story and place its fascist-minded monsters into a larger context.
As Frontiere(s) begins, a group of five young people who have used the chaos of post-election rioting to pull off a robbery see their escape fouled up. Pursued by the police, they become separated in the confusion and when one of their ranks dies due to police-inflicted bullet wounds, the remaining four members of the group â including Yasmine (Karina Tesra), the sister to the fallen thief â agree to rendezvous at a remote hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel they choose to seek shelter at is run by a tight-knit group of rural psychopaths led by a dried up old neo-nazi bastard (played by Jean-Pierre Jorris) whose ideas of hospitality are seriously lacking.
Gens’ choice to make his film’s young victims a group of hard-bitten criminals immediately tips viewers off to the fact that Frontiere(s) is going to be brutal. This isn’t just a bunch of free-loving hippies out on a lark. This isn’t even the boorish boys of Hostel. These are people who are accustomed to dealing in violence and to have them run up against a group that’s even tougher and nastier than they are is a great move by Gens.
Another great move is that as Frontiere(s) opens, we’re told through Yasmine’s voiceover narration that she happens to be three months pregnant. Immediately, the knowledge of that unborn child puts the audience on edge. Even though Yasmine has plans to abort the child, with his dying words, her brother Sami (Adel Bencherif) implores her to keep it and the underlying question of whether new life should be brought into a world that has less and less hope to offer lends an emotional backbeat to Frontiere(s)‘ escalating carnage that is unexpected for this kind unsparing bloodbath.
Once the kids end up in the company of their cannibalistic, neo-nazi superfreak hosts, there’s barely time to breathe, as things get messy real fast. The remainder of Frontiere(s) unfolds in true Texas Chainsaw fashion: characters are vividly tortured and executed and it more than lives up to the classic TCM tagline “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” Unfortunately, Frontiere(s) doesn’t boast a final act as effortlessly played as that of TCM.
With a movie like this, you know there’s going to have to be that point where the protagonist finally gets a break and is able to free themselves (if only long enough to provide some excitement for the finale) but some movies accomplish this better than others and how it comes about here causes an unfortunate break in the film’s tension.
When Yasmine finds herself getting the upper hand over her captors (in the middle of an arguably over-familiar TCM-style dinner sequence), the way it’s staged makes her moment of opportunity appear too convenient â and that in turn leads to a series of improbable action-movie style payoffs. However, most viewers won’t want to hold this against Gens too much, as the film’s previous bursts of bloodletting is turned into full-fledged geysers of gore. Gens understands how horror films are meant to function as a catharsis, and how explicit violence plays a part in that. Ultimately, despite the pain-filled, dirt-caked, blood-choked, grime-infested world he depicts here, Gens is out to deliver thrills for an audience rather than embracing a purely nihilistic outlook. For those accustomed to ultra-violent cinema, Frontiere(s) will be a rousing experience more than a harrowing one.
Among that segment of fandom that balks at any film that lean too heavily towards the formulaic or the clichéd, however, Frontiere(s) will be seen as an example of second hand scares. Even the most casual of genre fans will be able to spot the imprint of films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, Deliverance, The Descent, The Devil’s Rejects, and From Dusk Till Dawn on Frontiere(s). But I think a great part of the fun of following the genre is in seeing how filmmakers rework and revisit elements from earlier films. And on that count, there’s a lot to enjoy here.
Frontiere(s) may stay within familiar boundaries but it’s clear that Gens knows the horror genre like the back of his hand.
