Calvaire (The Ordeal) (2004)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Arash X

  
  Boring artsy-fartsy horror

• Drew S

  
  Infuriating, amateurish crap; the end result of a fitfully inventive mind watching too many American horror movies and deciding to piece together an absurdist homage comprised of about four or five mildly interesting set pieces. There's not much reason to care about all the… More
  Infuriating, amateurish crap; the end result of a fitfully inventive mind watching too many American horror movies and deciding to piece together an absurdist homage comprised of about four or five mildly interesting set pieces. There's not much reason to care about all the obtuse, heavily-implemented symbolism, as its only purpose seems to be loaning stray bits of meaning to a film that really doesn't have much. To be honest, none of it seems to have been done with all that much thought. Calvaire has a gaggle of astonishingly self-absorbed defenders on IMDB who write anyone not fond of the film off as uncultured or thoughtless, when there's really not a great deal to think about here. The seasons change arbitrarily because Fabrice Du Welz thought it would look cool. There are red-coated midgets in the woods because Fabrice Du Welz wanted to throw in a reference to Don't Look Now. These are just little ribbons adorning a very shallow package, and the complete discordance with which they're assembled precludes them from adding any sort of depth. The sound design is hackish and overdone, a mistaken effort at substituting volume for menace; the performances are poorly framed and striving for very different things, be it outright horror (Lucas) or black comedy (Berroyer); the only thing Du Welz really pulled off is the elegantly-lit, unshowy cinematography, using the sparse terrain to its best advantage. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to justify a watch, and Calvaire ultimately adds up to nothing but a few mildly "shocking" scenes.

• _kelly .

  
  Survival horror for the art house crowd, Calvaire has a unique oddness that drives its deranged story straight into the eyeballs of viewers. The horror here is in the insanity of the captors and the atmosphere of the area where the main character is stranded. If you want silly… More
  Survival horror for the art house crowd, Calvaire has a unique oddness that drives its deranged story straight into the eyeballs of viewers. The horror here is in the insanity of the captors and the atmosphere of the area where the main character is stranded. If you want silly excessive gore, this is not your movie. If you want a captive survival horror narrative that dares to flirt with believable mental illness and bothers to use the camera and cinematography to tell the story as much as dialogue, this is it. This is middle of nowhere backwards crazy people done to a perfect chime; look no further for your pigfucking scene needs. I hereby declare that I believe this film is superior to "Deliverance". "Most fucked up" highlight: the village dancing around the piano

• Greg S

  
  A struggling lounge singer breaks down in the Belgian countryside and is taken in by a lonely inkeeper who doesn't want him to leave. For 45 minutes nothing happens, and then it suddenly explodes into a surreal nightmare. There is a decent 60 minute movie here trapped inside… More
  A struggling lounge singer breaks down in the Belgian countryside and is taken in by a lonely inkeeper who doesn't want him to leave. For 45 minutes nothing happens, and then it suddenly explodes into a surreal nightmare. There is a decent 60 minute movie here trapped inside the bloated body of a 90 minute movie.

• Dr Blood  

  
  Avoid this film unless you are an arty-farty buff who likes to pretend to know more than normal people.

• Ryan M

  
  *** out of **** It may not have the best story, or the best characters, or the best of anything; but I still found myself admiring Fabrice Du Welz's "Calvaire" a whole lot, and consistently to boot. This is one of those films that tries hard enough to succeed, in… More
  *** out of **** It may not have the best story, or the best characters, or the best of anything; but I still found myself admiring Fabrice Du Welz's "Calvaire" a whole lot, and consistently to boot. This is one of those films that tries hard enough to succeed, in spite of its shortcomings (and I assure you, there are many), and the end result will either repulse you with its "awfulness" or surprise you with how genuine it is. A lot of loving craft went into the picture and I respect that; it all pays off. Welz has made a chilling thriller that truly aims to distress its audience. At this point, it isn't a matter of how much you love or hate the movie; it's how disturbed you are. Normally, I wouldn't like this approach, but there's something about the way in which Welz goes about staging all three acts of his film. It's the story of pop singer Marc Stevens (Laurent Lucas) who is leaving a show at a retirement home when his car breaks down somewhere deep in the woods; and he finds himself stranded there, searching for help. Eventually, it comes his way in the form of a strange man searching for a lost man; and it is this same kind but quirky guy that leads Marc to an Inn not far from where his car remains. The Inn is run by a man named Bartel (Jackie Berroyer); who appears kindly, or at least kindly enough to tow Marc's car to the premises and attempt to fix it up a bit. Marc stays a few days; a few nights. Bartel is comforting and nice; but there's work to be done. The car needs repairing, and so do Marc's emotions, which are in a tangle. To ease himself of this burden, he takes walks around the local and surrounding areas; troubled only by an instant in which Bartel warned him of a nearby village - telling him never to approach it. When Marc fails to listen and makes his way to the village regardless of Bartel's warnings; there is a dramatic turning point for the story that comes in the form of a scene depicting ritual-like bestiality between man and pig. Oh, and that's just the beginning of the weirdness that is soon to unfold. The story keeps getting stranger...and stranger...and oddly, a little more complex; as it goes on, of course. Since I'm hoping that a good few of you reading are curious about the film and wish to pursue and ultimately see it, I will not go any further in describing the story; because going further would mean spoiling a lot of the nasty surprises present throughout the remaining portion of the story. I like this movie because it does not cheat its audience. There's always a foreboding feeling of dread from the minute Marc hops in his van and hits the road; and Welz is very peculiar in how he builds suspense. He builds it through characters, dialogue, location, visual style, the off-kilter lack of a musical score, and horrors that have yet to reveal themselves. This is not - and I repeat, NOT - a horror movie; but more-so a quiet, deceptive, engaging thriller that does indeed have some thrills, some chills, and some scares. This is a film that makes its mystery known before it's even revealed; yet it's made with such taste and style that we don't call it "cheap" or "disappointing". Or maybe that's just me being opinionated; because I'm told that not everyone respected the ordeal while it lasted. While I'm kind of sad that this isn't a great film; I'm also glad that it isn't a bad one either. I imagine that it could have been better had it have been given a stronger opening scene (it begins with Marc singing to some old people; there were probably many other mapped-out choices in terms of how to begin the film, and I'm sure they were all better than the final pick) and more interesting, multi-dimensional characters. However, it's got enough genuine tension and skill put into it that I can push those things aside and recommend it to those willing to trudge through some thick, thick muck. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to live with movies like "Wolf Creek" and "August Underground". But this is not a perfect world, and therefore the sick, perverted bastards behind such exploitative garbage are allowed to run wild in order to freely express their "art". The primary reason why I enjoyed "Calvaire" is because it's just as disturbing as the said films; yet it doesn't provoke disgust out of what we see. Rather, it's all atmosphere, tension, and build-up; something that those repulsive, sick insults to cinema lack. And if I had to choose how I'd want to be disturbed, I'd choose a film like "Calvaire" over some torture porn feature any given day of the week.

• Alex M

  
  I might be alone here, but I actually found this movie to be even more disturbing than A Serbian Film. Marc ends up in the archetype of a fucked up situation. He's held hostage by an insane guy who thinks Marc is his wife, surrounded by woods filled with deranged men who fuck… More
  I might be alone here, but I actually found this movie to be even more disturbing than A Serbian Film. Marc ends up in the archetype of a fucked up situation. He's held hostage by an insane guy who thinks Marc is his wife, surrounded by woods filled with deranged men who fuck animals. Every attempt at escape is pitiful. And the more hopeless things seem, the closer Marc is to a full breakdown. My only gripe is the ending could have been a bit longer and shown a full resolution. I'm sure the director wanted to leave it open-ended, but this is one of those movies where I just wanted a clear end. Still, this film was fucken great. Creepy as hell is an understatement. Finally, Belgium gives us something to give a shit about other than waffles.

• John M

  
  The film is very atmospheric and the cinematography is stunning. You can almost feel the chill of the winter forest it takes place in. It's well shot and the acting is very good. The bar scene in "Calvaire" is fantastic. It is so bizarre, twisted and wonderfully shot.… More
  The film is very atmospheric and the cinematography is stunning. You can almost feel the chill of the winter forest it takes place in. It's well shot and the acting is very good. The bar scene in "Calvaire" is fantastic. It is so bizarre, twisted and wonderfully shot. The violence is not plentiful, but the sense of threat is always present.

• FanGirl B

  
  So what happened in the end? This is one sick movie.

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