It’s your classic baby rom-com, a baby is on the
way. Yayyy! Congratulations! Oh…one tiny thing, though. Instead of a stork delivering the baby, it’s an incredibly scary Frenchwoman who literally cuts the baby out of you after turning your house into a Tarantino-esque bloodbath. Standard “what to expect when expecting” material, really.
We can’t stress highly enough that this film is unsuitable for those who are pregnant. Unless you’re a masochistic mum-to-be this film is one to avoid, better to stick Juno on instead. It’s probably not a film to a
dd to your collection if you’re particularly squeamish in general, as it really leaves nothing to the imagination.
Although, here at It’s Under The Bed, we take a ‘the-gorier-the-better’ philosophy, so French horror film À l’intérieur from Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury was a welcome addition to our Friday night line up.
Sarah, played by Alysson Paradis, opens the film after we discover that her husband (and expectant father) had been killed in a car crash that Sarah and the baby managed to survive. We see Sarah as an alienated character, and one who is so aloof, cold and… French. She is massively, massively pregnant and adamant at being alone at home, having an induction planned for the next day. Whilst home alone, things begin to pick up with the introduction of the oh-so chilling Beatrice Dalle, who proceeds to lurk around in her black witchy clothes causing all sorts of mayhem. There are no other words to describe Dalle’s performance… she is utterly horrifying. Sarah, being a photographer, manages to take some haunting photos of the unknown intruder which perfectly capture how mad Dalle’s character looks. Flash photography is one of those brilliant things that is seldom used in films – flashes add the perfect amount of confusion without being too annoying, and dark rooms are quite sinister anyway.
We digress… Sarah decided that she had better get some rest, and the next scene is the intruder sitting over the sleeping Mum and bump, before she oh-so casually stabs Sarah in the stomach. With giant scissors. Yeah…as subtle as a sledgehammer.
Where are the safety scissors when you need them?
Rule one of being pregnant -apart from avoiding sushi- is to not be stabbed in the stomach. The gore starts to increase, and Sarah somehow manages to lock herself in the pristine (for now) bathroom. The pregnancy is such a good device – the audience feels protective over Sarah, and Maury and Bustillo have perfectly captured her vulnerability. One of the most striking chords in this film is that such sympathy is created for Sarah. In paranormal films, one is always conscious of the absurd, but in a film like this it uses the defenceless nature of the lead to almost mirror a sense of weakness within the audience… the film is not outside the realms of reality, which in my opinion makes it far more terrifying to watch that your run-of-the-mill supernatural flick.
Two visitors arrive at the house (don’t worry, they aren’t here for long). Sarah’s photographer boss is swiftly killed by the witchy intruder, and then in an awful twist, Sarah’s Mother is killed by Sarah (trigger-happy with fear… understandable). Police also arrive, but (wait for it) they are also killed by the witchy intruder. Things get brutal, with Sarah and the witchy intruder delivering some strong blows to each other with various kitchen appliances. Witchy intruder gets set on fire, and half of her face melts off. Dramatic stuff.
In a clever turn of events however, the directors then proceed to switch the entire nature in which we perceive the two women… Witchy intruder reveals that she had been pregnant when Sarah had crashed into her car. Whoah, major plot twist. Witchy intruder instantly becomes less of a random sociopath and almost a… victim? We really enjoy characters who are developed within a film or a book. A flat character with no back-story and personality traits is just about acceptable in a horror movie as they are not normally pivotal to the main storyline, but someone who’s character is fully developed is far more enjoyable and engaging for the audience. Immediately, the film becomes more akin to a revenge story. Subverting genres. I like.
The crescendo of the film ends with Sarah going into labour. Understandable, considering the shitty night she’s had. Her vulnerability is re-kindled and Witchy Intruder-Victim becomes a sort of mother and soothes Sarah, that is until she literally cuts the baby out of her. Mmhmm, Mother of the year award.
Achievement unlocked: EXTREME CAESARIAN
So all in all, the film is a semi-realistic vengeance-squeamish-french-gore-athon. An utter delight for us and hardcore horror fans alike. It is creepy, and has scenes that make you wince and squirm. If a film is powerful enough to evoke these emotions in a viewer, then its a surefire winner in our book. The take home message for this review? WARNING! Not for the faint hearted! 🙂
The Lampy-metre
The lampy’s are strong with this one, folks. Sensitive viewers who decide to take the plunge with this film might want to combine all of their lampy’s together into a kind of ‘mega-lampy’ before going to sleep. Oh, and just because we’re feeling extra generous, help yourself to a nice big dose of mind bleach if you need it!
It's Under The Bed... 