Frontier(s) (2007)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Very well executed

best movie i've ever seen.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

You know, I don't blame the lead actress for her wide-eyed, over acting, over screaming performance. It's likely that that's what the director wanted, and boy, did she deliver the hamminess in spades! When she was finished screaming, she screamed some more. And when she was finished doing that, she screamed some more. Then, just when you though she'd ran out of screams, she screams some more.I did like the frantic editing work. I do appreciate the labor that went into it. I also thought the story was interesting - a Nazi cannibal movie. Was that the first? Anyway, Nazis or not, it was almost a note for note duplicate of similar inbred hillbilly horror flicks. At least this one wasn't afraid to deliver the gore. Now, if they could've just done away with that ridiculous hamminess...

Frontier(s) is a fast-paced, very violent thrill-ride from Xavier Gens (The divide, Hit-man@2007, ABCs of death-segment-XXL). It is a brutal, depressing horror flick. Obviously the director was influenced by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of 1000 corpses, Timber falls. There are some genuinely frightening scenes, like the claustrophobic-to- the-max 'tunnel scene' n the Oven scene. Excellent cinematography by Laurent Barès (Inside, Livid, Hit-man, The divide, The pack). The Inn, the farmhouse, the claustrophobic mine, the chilling elevator, perfectly lighted hall, the deserted roads all very well shot. The movie is tight and fast-paced and very eerie. Saw this on a rented DVD in 2008. The acting is pretty good with Samuel le Bihan (The code, Brotherhood of the wolf) particularly fine as a brutal villain and Karina Testa one beautiful, gutsy and sympathetic heroine. The movie had strong character development and gave me a sense of sympathy for the actors playing the characters in distress. It devotes a good 30 minutes or so to acquainting us to the characters and really making you like them. Frontiers is fast brutal sadistic movie filled with tons and tons of blood n graphic violence.

I don't think this movie is worth reviewing but I wish the note on IMDb was lower (in no way is this worth 6.3), so here goes my two bits; As many of the negative reviews point out, there is not a single idea in this film that I haven't seen in better movies. The "plot" is a carbon copy of TCSM, used as an excuse to paste scenes ripped off from here and there. Pros : the settings are not too bad, but the film is structured like a (terrible) video game, the environments keep changing so you never get to delve into/care about them. Half of the time they are ruined by very poor lighting anyway. SOME of the actors were OK (talking about the 3 main bad guys), but they were overdoing it in every single scene (+the dialog was ridiculous, it sounded fake, rehashed and written by an 18 year old). LeBihan almost looks embarrassed in some scenes, seeming like he's wondering what the hell he's doing here. Cons : the plot was a mess, and boringly predictable from beginning to end. The editing (especially during the action scene) was obscure and random. Not a single cast member (apart from the aforementioned 3) could act. To an annoying extent. Most of them, especially the protagonists, rake on your nerves by constantly trying too hard. For 1 hour and 40 long, loooong minutes. Exhausting. The director was clearly aiming for "gritty realism" but the numerous flaws and inconsistencies of this film and it's general immature feel keep pulling you out of the movie. During the final scenes (which are ludicrous), it seems like the whole cast just gives up in a big "hell, why not" and then stupidly shoot at furniture for 5 minutes. That's what I call an FX budget well spent, exploding onions and plates are so interesting to look at. And don't even get me started on the spastic antics and retarded overacting from the lead during the last final half hour.Add a mindless idiotic "social/politic subtext" implied in a total of three minutes in the whole film you get a and you get a piece of amateurish crap that takes itself way too seriously.A bland, by the numbers, done-a-thousand-times cringe fest that lacks talent and ideas overall.

One of a new wave of ultra-explicit French horror/thrillers, FRONTIERS is everything a gore-drenched thriller should be. Set in the near future, it sees the usual bunch of unsuspecting victims holing up in a remote hotel, where they find themselves at the mercy of a hillbilly family who make the Texas Chainsaw clan look like the Brady Bunch. What follows is an odyssey of bloody murder, torture and revenge, expertly directed by Xavier Gans.I'm not really a fan of gore films per se. A lot of the horror films I love were made by Universal and Hammer, and of course these are considered tame by modern standards. But I don't mind gore when it's done right, as in the likes of HOSTEL, and it's certainly done right here too. We see brutal violence and punishment meted out to innocent victims before the tables are finally turned and the bad guys get their comeuppance, and that's just the kind of bloodshed I love watching. The film can hardly be applauded for originality but it certainly makes up for it in execution.This is a taut, tense and extremely gruelling affair which barely lets you catch your breath from beginning to end. Gans' direction is adroit and the spare script allows the story to be told mostly through action rather than needless dialogue. The performances are decent for what is clearly a low budget film, and the special effects are, of course, grisly and spectacular, especially that saw scene. FRONTIERS is a film for movie-goers who like their horror full-blooded and gritty and it beats any Saw movie hands down.