Review of Frontier(s) (2007) by Emil Ö — 06 Sep 2009

The back of my DVD cover has a quote that says "This is the French's answer to Saw and Hostel" and that just isn't true; Frontier(s) plays more like a French Texas Chainsaw Massacre more than anything. Not to say that this is a bad thing.

We have a pretty cast getting chopped up and indoctrinated into a neo-Nazi cult in the middle of nowhere in France. The sub-genre of the backwoods family murderers in horror is a tough one to get right; the best kind of horror fleshes the family out more than creating one-dimensional stereotypes. That's why I enjoyed The Devil's Rejects. They're killers, but they're a family first.

That's something that's rarely done well, making the family dynamic believable, and Frontier(s) doesn't really make it work that well. These actors don't sell the terror as well as most French horror actors, and neither do their murderous enemies. It's a shame, but once again, it's brings you back to the time of Texas Chainsaw where the lead actors really didn't need to do much but run and scream.

The violence is brutal, though, just like TCM. It's sudden and aside from the climax, it lacks a lot of Hollywood styled flair and edits. You're not paying attention to the editing but rather the violence on screen. And man, is it brutal.

This is not the strongest contender out of the French horror films I've seen, but I'd say it's the most "Americanized" one. Meaning if you're a slasher fan and love "Friday the 13th" and similar movies, you'll find this accessible.