Director: Xavier Gens
108 minutes (18) 2007
Second Sight Blu-ray
[Released 24th July]
Rating: 8/10
Review by Christopher Geary
On the run through Parisian riot hell after a rightwing election victory, a carload of youths decamp to the countryside, but are waylaid at a motel by a psycho family of neo-Nazi cannibals, in gore-fest Frontier(s), the feature debut of writer-director Xavier Gens (maker of Hitman). Yasmine (Karina Testa) is three months pregnant, which is all that saves her from joining murdered friends in elitist Von Geisler’s larder of salted cadavers, as these reclusive holdouts for a ‘master race’ need to expand their (contaminated) gene pool. Following several rounds of hardcore sadism, there’s an operatic dinnertime ordeal in store for Yasmine, where the hosts welcome her as their new leader’s bride.
Familiar
episodes from Texas Chainsaw Massacre
scenarios collide with the brutal torture-porn of Hostel, and much frenzied bloodshed ensues, with an intense and
gritty style that only falls back to rather less convincing horror action for
the heroine’s brief visit to local mine works (where unwanted offspring lurk),
the climactic slaughterhouse fighting, and a crowd-pleasing shootout for the
archetypal bad girls with guns. Harassed, beaten, nearly broken, Yasmine is the
slasher genre’s newest ‘final girl’, repeatedly drenched in her attackers’
blood, arterial spray reaching the fountain heights and lawn-sprinkler breadths
of Shogun Assassin’s legendary
blanket coverage of ‘red rain’.
If intro montages of TV news reports and location footage recall the seriousness of apocalyptic SF, the spectacular ending’s blunt force vengeance is reminiscent of spaghetti westerns. Part evocative fairy tale, part cautionary modern-myth, with layers of sinister and savage theatricality, this delivers a blatant attempt to moderate our grieving heroine’s pain and suffering with some reassuringly disreputable ‘Grand Guignol’ retribution. No respecter of safety zones or any boundaries of taste, Frontier(s) presents a wild rush of moral outrage, unflinching shocks, chilling despair, and darkest comedy. Prefer your tragic horror movies resolved by merciless ultra-violence? (‘Born into a world of chaos and hatred?’) This one’s for you.
Disc extras:
- Reinventing The Extreme - an interview with director Xavier Gens
- Going Method - interview with Karina Testa
- A Light In The Dark - interview Maud Forget
- Lights, Camera... Fear - interview with cinematographer Laurent Bares
- Sounds Of Violence - interview with composer Jean-Piere Taieb
- The Making of Frontier(s)
- Commentary with Zoe Rose Smith and Kelly Gredner
- Fotografik short film
- Storyboard comparisons
- Behind-the-scenes photos with commentary by Gens and Testa
- Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Gens and Testa
- Trailers
Limited edition contents:
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by James Neal
- 70-page book with new essays by Dr Sarah Cleary, Mark H. Harris, Carolyn Mauricette, and Alexandra West
- 6 collectors’ art cards
