World Famous Comics: Malefique [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Malefique [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Directed By: Eric Valette Average Rating: Binding: DVD Format: Import, PAL, Widescreen, Subtitled, Director's Cut Label: Siren Visual Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 4.0 Running Time: 133 minutes
Reader beware French horror films are a real rarity, but Malefique throws in one image that would leave David Cronenberg green with envy and which would have the MPAA running for the shears: as one of its quartet of convicts looks at a montage of body parts cut from porn magazines and pasted to the wall, one of them turns into a real vagina with a blinking eye. That should tell you straight off if this film is for you or not, as does the opening moment of do-it-yourself open-heart surgery. In truth, it sounds more graphic on paper than in execution, with director and Woody Allen lookalike Eric Valette using the early gore the way Cronenberg used the exploding head in Scanners to create a sense of unease about what he'll come up with to top it. The answer, in terms of gore, is not very much at all, but there are some interesting plot twists and plenty of atmosphere en route. It's a good example of an imaginative low-budget film, set almost entirely in one (admittedly roomy) prison cell where the four inhabitants find a mysterious book that seems to offer a way out of jail if they can decipher its formulas and incantations. The only problem: they don't ask why, if its previous owner truly escaped, the book was left behind or, indeed, where the book will take them...
In many ways it's an old fashioned film, relying heavily on performances and characterization for much of the first half of the tight running time. Luckily the vaguely familiar cast bring more to their parts than is often the case in no-budget genre films, although it'll be interesting to see how the original characters fare in the planned Hollywood remake (Valette himself is scheduled to remake Takashi Miike's One Missed Call). Somehow I don't think the transsexual rapist is likely to make the transition intact...
Classic Horror Malifique is a film worth any true cinephile's attention, especially if one enjoys horror. From the opening scene, through the end, it captivates the viewer with a story that taunts the prisoners on the screen.
While there are some disturbingly graphic moments, it is much more cerebral than the average horror film. Even if you deduce some of the plot twists, it's still very entertaining.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
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