Inside(À l’intérieur)

Inside(À l’intérieur) is one of those movies that you hear people talk about as being gory and a “must See” a word of mouth hit.  Unless you are a horror geek you’ve probably had no interest in it or even heard of it but if you can stomach it it’s a much watch.

Inside is the story of Sarah who loses her husband in a car accident but she survives carrying his baby.  As the birth of the baby nears she shows no interest in the child almost seeming to reject the fact it’s even been born.  This is when the woman turns up.  It starts with a simple knock on the door asking to use her phone (which reminds me so much of a Clockwork Orange).  When Sarah refuses to let the woman in the woman appears at the window and tries to force her way in.  After calling the police and making sure the house is safe she finds she is far from safe and the woman is in the house.  Even more worrying for Sarah it is not Sarah herself that the woman wants but her unborn baby.

Inside is a very effective film and hits you with a ton of bricks continuously until the very end.  The violence is very realistic, aggressive and unrelenting as both women struggle for control over the situation the woman has put Sarah through.  It’s almost a battle of wills over who will have the baby by the end of the movie.  The fact that the battles between the two and also various other characters trying to help Sarah happen in 3 small rooms creates a very tense and claustrophobic experience for the watcher.

The most claustrophobic element of the movie surprisingly enough though is the relationship between Sarah’s body and her baby.  As if to hammer home that Sarah is pregnant and is being attacked the director shows clips of the baby in distress as its mother is attacked, this is done obviously to enhance your pity for both the woman and child.  It’s something most movies would not have the balls to do, or would even do really, yes it “went there”.  What I mean by that is it takes a pregnant woman and puts her in jeopardy.  It’s not a case of us thinking about when she gets struck in the stomach during an attack it’s that you get to see the baby grimace as it feels its mother struggling, you almost experience it’s shock which sometimes is hard to sit through.

This movie is a must see for any horror fan really.  France is quickly becoming one of the best countries for horror at the moment, especially extreme horror.  Along with Martyrs and Haute Tension they are three of my favourite European horror movies.  Spain sits alongside it of course with movies such as [Rec] but it’s the French that seem to go for violent and extreme violence and show they have the balls to do so when Hollywood is softening up what they term as “horror”.  Hollywood can have their Twilight movies I’ll stick to movies like Inside.