Inside (2007) Horror Movie Review

by Sonia
(Washington State)

French poster for "Inside"

***Reader Submitted Review***

The “torture film” is one of the many spinoffs of the horror genre, and it is one of the most difficult to pull off. Well, it’s one of the most difficult to pull off well. The biggest problem with most torture films is that they feature a “good guy” and a “bad guy,” and one of them is calling all the shots while the other is having absolutely no chance to retaliate. This is one of the fastest ways to lose an audience, because these films are so frustrating that eventually the audience will just get tired of being frustrated and end up bored.

There are some movies, like "Hard Candy" (2005) with Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson, where the “good guy” is torturing the “bad guy.” This is supposed to give the audience satisfaction but it never does. Page plays Hayley, a fourteen-year-old girl who is picked up by pedophile Jeff (played by Wilson). As soon as they get to his house, she switches roles and really is the bad guy. The thing is, just knowing Jeff is a pedophile isn’t enough, in this case, to hate him enough to see these things happen to him. If there’d been an initial scene where we were made to hate him, the film would have been much more watchable. But for the entire film, he is completely helpless to Hayley’s sadistic hands (and surgical equipment).

Another example is Michael Haneke’s "Funny Games" (1997), which was recently remade shot-by-shot for American audiences because Haneke thought it would be more popular over here. The idea of the film was to demonstrate how involved the audience is to what’s happening in the film, but it really just leaves a sour taste in the mouth of anyone who watches it. It would be all right, because there is a scene where the victims in this case are able to retaliate and suddenly it was interesting. But a moment later, the assailants turn that around and use the audience itself to put themselves back where they had been before.

Other frustrating movies include Ruggero Deodato’s "House On The Edge of the Park" (1980) and the recent "Ils" (2006), though what "Ils" causes in frustration it makes up for in tension and decent chills. "House On The Edge of the Park" also rather makes up for it at the very end, but it’s so sudden and spur-of-the-moment that it doesn’t really take effect on the audience.

It’s films like these that make horror fans lose faith in the torture film. However, we do continue to watch them, and how lucky, because just when we stop looking is when movies like "Inside" (2007) come out. Technically, "Inside" never “came out.” There was never a wide theatre release for it and the majority of the American population is quite unaware of the film’s existence. But it was released onto DVD, and thanks to the internet and reliable sources like Rue Morgue magazine, people are able to be at least slightly informed when a film comes out.

"Inside" is not a typical mainstream film, nor is it a film that many people will want to see at all. The plot itself is enough to give many people nightmares, but to the rest of the population, it’s a swift 83-minute reminder that the French are the ones to look towards for horror. It starts with a car accident that kills pregnant Sarah’s (Alysson Paradis) husband and quite obviously wounds her a bit, though she’s lucky and doesn’t lose the baby. Four or so months later, she’s going home alone for the last night she has to herself before she is admitted into the hospital to deliver. That night, she is terrorized by a seemingly psychotic woman (Beatrice Dalle) who, wielding a pair of scissors, has a burning desire to cut the baby out of Sarah’s stomach and keep it for herself.

Again, there is nothing more annoying than one person winning all the time throughout the film and leaving the other person completely miserable. However, this film never goes there. The opening of the film is crucial to how the rest plays out, and in the beginning we see that Sarah is already completely miserable. She’s outwardly rude to people and keeps only to herself, even shutting out her mother (Nathalie Roussel). She thinks so much about her husband that it is very clear to the audience that this baby is the last thing she wants. If she has the baby, it’s very possible that she will never be able to move on from what happened to her husband and be quite miserable all her life. Sympathy is sparked more towards the baby than it is towards its mother. Because of this, there is already an unconscious desire in the audience for the baby to end up with whomever will love it the most. Of course there is a feeling of sympathy for Sarah as well, because otherwise the film would stop being interesting right then and there. Because she is so miserable, there is another unconscious desire for her to move on from her tragedy and find something that can be fulfilling for her.

The mysterious woman, who is never known by any name other than “La Femme,” is rather terrifying, but in a different way from any other movie villain. She’s not really trying to hurt Sarah, but she does want that baby and she will do anything to get it. Unlike Hayley in "Hard Candy" or Peter and Paul in "Funny Games" or Alex in "House on the Edge of the Park," she is almost completely un-sadistic. It’s her determination that makes her so frightening. She’s not doing this for fun; she really has a motive (which is revealed toward the end of the film). Another thing that really makes the audience sympathize with her is that she doesn’t always win. She doesn’t call all the shots and she definitely loses sometimes. She gets stabbed and burned and kicked around and, at one point, nearly arrested. It’s just as difficult for her to achieve her goal than it is for Sarah to keep her from achieving it. Making La Femme sympathetic is where this film crosses the line from mediocre horror to near-masterpiece. The directors really found a way to make the assailant a real character, which was highly effective in evoking several responses from the audience. It’s highly rare for a horror movie to explore emotions other than fear, and it’s even rarer for it to be done well.

This film is extremely graphic, which is why it’s unrated. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart, easily disgusted, soon-to-be mothers, or anyone who has any sort of motherly tendencies whatsoever. There are buckets of blood and gore and so much violence it’s almost the only thing that can be remembered about it. For first-time directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, it’s a powerful explosion into the genre. They often refer to it as a love story, and it’s easy to see why - especially the ending. The score is extremely effective in the end in making the film end hauntingly, horrifically, and strangely beautiful. Highly recommended!