Frontieres

Videogame Deconstruction of Flesh

French director Xavier Gens gives you Frontieres or Frontiéres - the poster does not seem to include the accent, yet I won't bother to look superclosely with this degree of effect craving revealed on it - a film that held considerate promise just to end up as an average clone submitting to the recent, unfortunate deformations horror have been subjected to via such weightless efforts as the latest Saw movies or the Hostel series - new (de)generation popcorn horror have emerged clearly, though I do admit that both franchise had their great moments in their early sections, respectively. Now these recent methods to fuel similar installments seem to solidify desperately, this time around influencing a French creative team to deliver their very unique clone. Haha. A unique clone. Oximoron of the month, and worts blaming of horror to date in 2008, Ladies and Gents.

A bubblegenre seems to emerge indeed, a genre to introduce small parties, minicommunities to end up at various hideouts/bases where other, highly idiotic small parties are operating. Do not expect wonders, as rules are extremely easy to grasp on for here. Here is the focal idea:

human = meat
baddie = cleaver
human - > screams
baddie - > laughs

This is a very important formula, I would urge you to dig the simple, yet hopefully inherent meaning in it. Once the viewer accepts that these movies handle human as meat, all of a sudden you realize that the main attraction pretty much narrows down to this act of depriving human of all beyond it's physical buildup, the nature that can be abused so easily, so evidently, so cheaply.

Now the buildup is this: you have French thieves, they run away from some political struggle that lit Paris on fire. Riots, water cannons, police. Actually the film feels and looks quite intense at the beginning. Discouragement is to rise ruthlessly, as there is but 15 minutes to remain prior the small party's arrival to a motel, maintained by nazis whom spent their lives watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as they surely follow a strict, twisted family structure to operate by, a model reminiscent from the classic movie we referred to. Events quickly ensue to points where collision between visitors and proprietors is imminent, thus making place for a rhythmic buildup that is super-akin to the ones we had chance to witness in Frontiere's inspirators.

Gen's effort delivers the usual baddie archetypes: The Fat Duder with Bigass Cleaver and Shotgun, the average Nazi Human War Tank with the name Goetz, mildly but evidently frustrated dude who built some muscles on himself to look less laughable, making an attraction of himself that is TRULY worth laughing at, and surely we have The Boss Monster: the Father. Authentic Real Deal Nazi, he probably co-written the song SS Deathstar Supergalactic with Hanzel und Gretyl. Here, sorry, Hier Sind Grandpa:



- Hmmmmm. Das Ist Meine SPEZIALITAET!

At least this figure - disfigure? - is quite well presented and operated, not something you can tell of the majority of the characters. To be honest, I immensely disliked the protagonist thieves, - it is never exactly revealed that they are thieves yet the official materials do inform us of this - they constantly behave in a senselessly intense manner, talk ridiculous shit at each other like adolescent idiots confronting alcohol for the very first time, even worse: the related melodrama the director tries to sew around them is excessively shallow to the point you would keenly mute the soundtrack off just to defend the ambitious music that gets humiliated by the powerless image sequences that actually attempt to show true emotion and tragedy. What a laugh, and what a bitter of it!



The Big Fat Duder with Shotgun is among the BEST elements Frontieres has to offer.

Actors are incredibly average, even worse: poor main protagonist girl got the instruction that she has to nod her head in an exquisitely awkward fashion to simulate a probable, ongoing nervous breakdown as she is forced to walk through this hell, I guess. Xavier Gens fails massively at creating characters you do care for, his only invention worth noting concerns a hommage to the decent horror movie Descent: we have the chance to witness a brief stuck-in-cave scene similar to the atmosphere the aforementioned inspiratior builds upon, Gens actually utilizes this concept in a nice manner by introducing mutated siblings the Motel keepers have bred and got rid of, thus now they populate the cave system.

This is an interesting part, yet not thoroughly elaborated, I am almost entirely sure it is a direction that Gens choose not to completely exploit, being afraid of possible accusations that his inspiration was Descent. Hey, Xavier - your inspiration was Descent, no?



Say: Cheese and Onions! This is the Biggest Role of Your Life!

Surely, main attraction remains the

Good Old Suffering

let's see what your writer and director Gens can come up with. Here is a comprehensive list, naturally contains spoilers, please read only if you do not mind these focal moments being unraveled.

1. Cutting of the achilles tendon with bigass pliers is included. OK, 4 out of 10.

2. Boiling one of the irritative young characters in hot gas. Hah, that was GREAT fun, I admit. Let's give it an 8 out of 10.

3. Match between boiled, dying irritative young character and Shotgun. Shotgun wins by TKO, but no blood. Bah! Also, why the head? Bah, bah! 3 out of 10.

4. Putting baddie dude on the hacksaw table, to commence integrity test. Not convincingly presented. Ambition noted, ambition wasted. 2 out of 10.

5. Blowing head apart with Shotgun, full impact. Surely, All Time Classic. A SHAME this is DYNAMITE that destructs the head here. Get a dummy and re-test, Xavier! 2 out of 10.

6. Storage room filled by bagged corpses. Scene in which you are sure that one of the corpses will open the eyes up is included and presented by the moment you anticipate. Still somewhat OK though, thanks to the horrible eyes. 5 out of 10.



Hm, actually, I need to think what I left out, and this seems to me as a considerate sign that the other kills or scares were even less creative than these. Scares are scarcely included anyway, Frontieres tends to boil down to the exhibition of sadistic behavior which is quite a bit more boring than staggering to watch after a while, and this particular "while" kicks in by the time you realize that the human = meat equation already is rampant and has nothing more to offer than

Video Game Deconsruction of Flesh

and related screams to induce laughable melodrama which is absolutely the hardest to tolerate in this here effort of improbable shallowness and zero gravitational pull. You know what? Actually I was hoping that the pigs would get a hold of the sobbing young average idiot and eat him up alive in one of the flat scenes the film tries to sell out as one of it's definite peek moment. This though never happened. Pigs vs Sobbing Average Idiot could have been a nice 7 out of 10, nevertheless, as this kind of thread-on-horror assumes that terrorizing your everyday idiotic small parties with an opposing everyday idiotic small party will deliver you true excitement and canvas shock. Why not let the Pigs have their revenge, then?

Now it is a time where we need to get afraid considerably, indeed: the fact that French releases an effort that copies this cheap horror directions is something we should definitely not be delighted let alone happy about. To clarify this further: I have absolutely nothing against this kind of videogame-survival-horror movie entertainment, yet I truly hope they will not compromise the more serious and more weighty appeals that the genre has true potential and secret desire to reveal.



- Will. You. Merry. Me?
- I ALWAYS loved your timing.

If you enjoyed this here article, check out my comic: Planetseed
If you are to circulate magnificently pleasant vibrations: Buy me Beer