Frontière(s) (Frontier(s)) (2007)

Featured Audience Ratings

• J P

  
  Pretty fucked up movie.

• familiar s

  
  It might be one of the goriest movies I've ever seen, but unfortunately, it isn't a good one to say the least. It's the oft repeated theme (as in Vacancy, TCM, Hostel, Martyrs, etc.) of a psychotic family that kills a group of teenagers one by one except for one.… More
  It might be one of the goriest movies I've ever seen, but unfortunately, it isn't a good one to say the least. It's the oft repeated theme (as in Vacancy, TCM, Hostel, Martyrs, etc.) of a psychotic family that kills a group of teenagers one by one except for one. Won't give away the ending although I don't feel it'd make any difference. The blood keeps flowing from one or more of the characters for most of the part, and it won't be a huge exaggeration to say that the movie literally runs on blood. The characters are hardly established to feel anything for 'em. The worst part was the poor performance by Karina Testa, the one who plays the role of the protagonist Yasmin. Her unrealistic acting is apparent for more than a couple of times. Seems like she doesn't know the difference between shivering and shaking. And the old Nazi, the head of the dysfunctional family seeking pure blood, overacted more than his character required to (overact). I can overlook its illogical scenes and nonsensical bloodshed, but then the movie hardly has anything else to keep it going. Gore and blood are the central characters of this movie. The plot is too thin and depends heavily on violence. On the lighter side, it never got intolerably boring. And if you're a fan of the movies full of action and violence, no matter whether the plot exists or not, you may find this movie very entertaining.

• Arash X

  
  Man this so-called new wave of french horror sucks

• Randy T

  
  For some reason, Netflix had this listed under the genre of 'Zombie Flicks'. It's not. It's more along the lines of <i>Hostel</i> or <i>Wolf Creek</i> or a hundred other <i>TCM</i> wannabes. The story line is gleaned from… More
  For some reason, Netflix had this listed under the genre of 'Zombie Flicks'. It's not. It's more along the lines of <i>Hostel</i> or <i>Wolf Creek</i> or a hundred other <i>TCM</i> wannabes. The story line is gleaned from those films that preceded it, not that a story is all that important here. Any semblance of a plot is merely an excuse to show more decomposing corpses hung up on meat hooks. It's not a badly made movie, it's just that it's extremely unoriginal. There's not a single frame of film here, not one, that you couldn't point to and say 'I've seen this before'.

• Luke B

  
  The La Haine Multiple Implement Massacre. It's very French and also very vicious. It's easy to see how Xavier Gens wound up directing Hitman. His "frantic" style is more suited to action films. The editing is such a mess it was like watching Quantum of Solace: The… More
  The La Haine Multiple Implement Massacre. It's very French and also very vicious. It's easy to see how Xavier Gens wound up directing Hitman. His "frantic" style is more suited to action films. The editing is such a mess it was like watching Quantum of Solace: The Horror Years. The change from heist movie to horror is well done and doesn't come from nowhere. The build up is rather suspenseful but unfortunately I really couldn't care what happened to anybody in this film. The whole Nazi Cannibal thing is overdone and verges and pastiche at times. For it's genre though, this is a strong and worthy contender. It has the gore, the stupid characters and those frustrating moments where you shout at the screen. Isn't that half the appeal?

• Bruce B

  
  This is from the 8 Films to Die for 2008 series, I have watched the other 7, and this is the eight, and I can say beyond any shadow of a doubt this is the very best one. Some people compare it to hostel, Texas Chainsaw, and Saw. But no no this writer has a touch all his own and if you… More
  This is from the 8 Films to Die for 2008 series, I have watched the other 7, and this is the eight, and I can say beyond any shadow of a doubt this is the very best one. Some people compare it to hostel, Texas Chainsaw, and Saw. But no no this writer has a touch all his own and if you can't see it your blind. Had me on the very edge of my seat after the first 20 minutes, Creeped me out and its been a very long time since a movie did that, you can feel the pain as each person is eliminated. This is not a I want to See, this is a Go Out AND Get It Tomorrow, a boost for the 8 Films to Die for and can't wait till 2009 series comes out. Oh yes a Collectable worth the price of $7.50 at Wally's world.

• jd c

  
  Rip off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hostel, but Frontière(s) is still an entertaining, sick and twisted little horror movie. Very violent and bloody indeed. A well deserved NC-17 rating! Nowhere is this near an outstanding horror film, but it's definitely enjoyable and… More
  Rip off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hostel, but Frontière(s) is still an entertaining, sick and twisted little horror movie. Very violent and bloody indeed. A well deserved NC-17 rating! Nowhere is this near an outstanding horror film, but it's definitely enjoyable and good enough for at least one viewing. Great cinematography, solid performances, and bloody, bloody, bloody violence! Good times! <img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/Frontires.jpg">

• _kelly .

  
  Just another "we went down the wrong road and shacked up with a family of cannibalistic serial killers" movie. It's not a poorly done movie, it's just not anything substantially great. If you like the Wolf Creek, Turistas, or Hostel treatments of this subject… More
  Just another "we went down the wrong road and shacked up with a family of cannibalistic serial killers" movie. It's not a poorly done movie, it's just not anything substantially great. If you like the Wolf Creek, Turistas, or Hostel treatments of this subject matter, then you should like this. There aren't any memorable scares, some decent cinematography but the images do not amount to a consistent piece like another new French horror film, A L'Interieur or the watershed work of Switchblade Romance (Haute Tension). The little bit of saving grace in this movie is the Gothic horror aesthetic of a demented family hiding secrets that kicks in for the last thirty minutes with the revelation (SPOILER) that the "people' in the mines are the deformed offspring of the daughters' that the father wanted killed, but instead were hidden from him within the mines. <br/>For the script my biggest complaint is that the fanatical Nazi patriarch speaks French instead of mixing more German and raising his children to speak German, as he has given them proper German names. He does throw a bit of German here and there, and even a little English, but not enough.

• A.D. V

  
  It blatantly rips off Texas Chainsaw Massacre but it has enough thrills, gore and Nazis to make it it's own.

• Steve K

  
  Hmm. I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this, but it just didn't live up to the hype. Not to say it's worthless, but it was never as shocking as it thought it was. Maybe I've seen too many similar films. At any rate, it was certainly longer than it needed to… More
  Hmm. I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this, but it just didn't live up to the hype. Not to say it's worthless, but it was never as shocking as it thought it was. Maybe I've seen too many similar films. At any rate, it was certainly longer than it needed to be. Quite graphic in places. Character motivations were shallow to ridiculous. A no-brainer you can keep on in the background without fearing you're missing anything.

• Ryan M

  
  *** out of **** Horror directors are a peculiar breed. With "Frontier(s)", director Xavier Gens has taken the Paris riots and envisioned the cruel aftermath through heads exploding, tendons being cut, parts of the neck being bitten clean off, and terrible death by gas… More
  *** out of **** Horror directors are a peculiar breed. With "Frontier(s)", director Xavier Gens has taken the Paris riots and envisioned the cruel aftermath through heads exploding, tendons being cut, parts of the neck being bitten clean off, and terrible death by gas chamber. In a sense, Gens might just be blowing off a lot of steam with the amount of carnage that he chooses to show; but at the same time, there's a greater craft at work underneath all the horrible acts committed in this strange but oddly fascinating horror feature from France. It may seem like Gens is cashing in on the basic premise of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" on the surface, but he has the qualities of a stylistically gifted filmmaker, and it's these qualities that allow him to make a run-of-the-mill plot interesting yet again. One could say that he breathes new life into the slasher conventions and horror clichés that he himself employs for the story. It's nothing so outlandishly new that you'll want to shower it with the highest amount of praise possible, but it's good enough. Take a look at the kind of slasher pictures that America is making at the moment and tell me I'm wrong. The film begins with the riots that inspired it. The streets of Paris are in chaos, and immediately after they are introduced, our central characters must do their best to flee the scene. They are Alex, Tom, Farid, Sami, and his pregnant sister Yasmine. Sami and Yasmine have just attempted a robbery; with Sami being shot soon thereafter. The group must split up into two separate cars and get their dying friend to the nearest hospital. Farid and Tom take one car; Yasmine, Sami, and Alex take the other. When they do get to the hospital, it's too late; and the surviving members of the party must be on the road yet again. Meanwhile, Farid and Tom have found a resting place for the night; a hostel located very close to the border. Upon arriving, they notice that it's a very strange place; although it's homely, and two very beautiful women are right there for the taking. The place seems to be run by a burly man named Goetz. He is fairly "off" - if you know what I mean - but the boys aren't looking for any trouble, so they don't question the off-kilter looks that he flashes them. An absolutely gross dinner scene with those who operate the hostel and the boys provokes one to ask a few questions in regards to the normality of the family. Before the men can ask the girls and Goetz themselves, they're already doing battle with the latter. He chases them and their car into a ditch that leads to a nearby coal mine. And that's the end of that. Not too long after this, the others arrive; unaware of the sadistic intentions of the family. It is then that we meet the REAL man of the house, the aging neo Nazi Von Geisler. So I guess that explains the gas chamber scene. I have a love-hate relationship with ultra-violence. I respect that it can serve a purpose in the context of a story, but it can also be abused and become excessive or disturbing. The violence in "Frontier(s)" is both of those things, but also sort of provocative. Not only are the make-up effects by Nicolas Herlin and Laetitia Hillion insane and effective; but also evocative of Gens' state of mind. He must have been so angry with the world to want to do this kind of film in the style that he chose (which is, if I might add, somewhat imperfect). The film is a personal vision, but not one that cannot be appreciated whatsoever by the understanding horror fans of the world. That is perhaps the most forgiving crowd. More casual or misunderstanding viewers might hate the decision on Gens part to make violence a central focus. But I wouldn't praise a film if it was just violence without any artistic substance. "Frontier(s)", while relentlessly brutal and ferocious throughout, is also genuinely creepy and moody. The suspense scenes are where it really scores big time. The cinematography is pretty much master-class, and I adored the color tinting job that Gens gave the picture. Pretty much every scene feels at least somewhat lively and eccentric. Nazis, Holocaust references galore, political undertones, and enough hardcore extremist violence to warrant an NC-17 rating; "Frontier(s)" delivers the bloody goods stylishly enough for me to recommend it, if only to a crowd accepting of its level of blood and gore spillage. Still, I think the story - for what it is - works to the best effect, even if the characters aren't particularly well-developed or given dramatic weight. This is not a film of great depth - even the political messages come off as a tad heavy-handed and overly simplistic - but it's still a wild, wild ride. It's one of those rare full-frontal assault pictures that I wish more people had the guts and free-will to make nowadays; very reminiscent of a film from, say, the ever-so-brave 70's. If you see what I'm getting at, then you're probably ready for the film.

• Jacob P

  
  A very good french horror flick with gruesome scenes\imagery.

• Daniel P

  
  As a demonstration of stunning gore/make-up effects, and for an excellent female lead performance, this is brilliant. As a horror film, a social satire, or anything really worthwhile, it's a failure. Review soon.

• Leina R

  
  French horror does it again. This is a French version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre just a tiny bit less absurd and more bloody and gory.

• Eduardo C

  
  How to make a "New Wave of French Horror" flick: <p> 1. Watch a few films by Claire Denis, Gaspar Noé and Marina de Vans. <p> 2. Buy a high definition digital video camera. <p> 3. Script? What script? Just liberally rip scenes from far superior films. Do… More
  How to make a "New Wave of French Horror" flick: <p> 1. Watch a few films by Claire Denis, Gaspar Noé and Marina de Vans. <p> 2. Buy a high definition digital video camera. <p> 3. Script? What script? Just liberally rip scenes from far superior films. Do make sure, however, to pretend to include some subtext or political commentary. This is France, after all. You need to cover your ass. <p> 4. Make sure your color palette emphasizes brown and green. <p> 5. Since you are going for "EXTREME HORROR", make sure you hire a cast that can conceivably spend the film either shouting at each other or screaming their lungs out. <p> 6. Spend half your budget on corn syrup and CGI gore. <p> 7. Hire someone well versed in Avid to over-edit the footage. <p> 8. Profit. <p> Frontiers is, yet again, another film that pretends to be about the lengths human beings will go through in order to survive impossible situations while actually being nothing more and nothing less than shock-cinema of the least creative kind. Characters (and I use the term very loosely here) behave acoording to the demands of a screenplay as opposed to the way any rational human being would, entire sequences exist solely so the film's length can be padded and there is no internal logic to this obviously heightened universe where a character can survive a gunshot for hours only to expire from his wounds when it is most convenient for the screenplay while another will die immediately from the same type of injury and yet another will suffer absolutely no ill effects from it. How am I expected to care about what happens to a character (loosely used once more) when I have absolutely no idea how the screenplay will arbitrarily determine that he or she will be affected? Realizing that anything could potentially happen at any given time, that logic, behavior and the rules of (even a heightened) reality do not apply makes sitting through this movie a very boring experience. Stuff happens, the film ends. Yawn. <p> The film is incompetently directed, poorly edited and barely acted, but above all else it is dishonest and there are few things I hate more than a dishonest movie. The opening credit sequence is a montage of violent Parisian protests in response to the resuls of a Presidential election in which an unnamed hard-right candidate has won. This is, obvously, a reference to the Paris riots of recent years where immigrants and the poor have taken to the streets to protest what they view as a repressive and unfair government crackdown on their rights, even though most of the protesters here seem middle-class and white. When our characters, on the run, are taken in by a family of cannibalistic, gun-toting Nazi rapists, the film is supposed to be making some kind of point. But what point is that, precisely? Our characters are neither impoverished nor immigrants, and even our token Muslim was clearly born in France. The candidate in question's policies are never even mentioned so there can be no thematic link between them and those of our Nazis. Furthermore, our characters come across as rather fascist themselves so despite the film's posturing it has no political agenda: it is merel about a group of arrogant teenagers getting their comeuppance. A carnival geek show. Torture porn. I dare anyone to sit through the family scenes and not think Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. The movie is exploitation, pure and simple, pitifully masquerading as something more. The fact that it thought a completely extraneous credit sequence was enough to shit into art tells me everything I need to know about the filmmakers. <p> I'm getting very tired of this so-called film movement that is really anything but. Xavier Gens, Alexandre Aja et all are simply cashing in on a trend, mimicking its look/feel and treating their movies as demo-reels to show Hollywood producers in order to secure future contracts.

• Nicky M

  
  Freaky French horror movie that is obviously influenced by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostel, and High Tension. Great gore but the story lacks at times and has weird scenes just to be out there. Overall worth the watch for those who like good gore and TCM but don't mind… More
  Freaky French horror movie that is obviously influenced by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostel, and High Tension. Great gore but the story lacks at times and has weird scenes just to be out there. Overall worth the watch for those who like good gore and TCM but don't mind subtitles.

• Leo L

  
  Interesting movie. Good story plot.

• Christopher B

  
  Boring and uninspired with a terrible lead performance. The subtitles on the version I watched may be a little sketchy (as 2 characters are being chased by a car they repeatedly say, "They chase us!"). As gory as the film is, it is really uninvolving with very little to… More
  Boring and uninspired with a terrible lead performance. The subtitles on the version I watched may be a little sketchy (as 2 characters are being chased by a car they repeatedly say, "They chase us!"). As gory as the film is, it is really uninvolving with very little to recommend.

• Juny L

  
  This film in the beginning remind me of Hostel & then it turns out to be similar like Texas Chainsaw Massacre but with a cannibalistic Neo-Nazis family.Expect a very violent, brutal film with great gory & bloody scenes.Perhaps not an original film that's been overdone… More
  This film in the beginning remind me of Hostel & then it turns out to be similar like Texas Chainsaw Massacre but with a cannibalistic Neo-Nazis family.Expect a very violent, brutal film with great gory & bloody scenes.Perhaps not an original film that's been overdone couple of times but some effects are top notch.A sadistic film that's well shot & will keep gore-hounds happy. <a href="http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm217/belkis2intense/?action=view&current=frontieres.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm217/belkis2intense/frontieres.jpg" border="0" alt="frontieres"></a>

• Patrick D

  
  First of the writing in this film was great. Xavier Gens wrote a story that was a really interesting flip to the torture porn genre, taking alot of ideas from 70s exploitation and making them work today. The acting also is pretty good, nothing to complain about. The actor for Claudia… More
  First of the writing in this film was great. Xavier Gens wrote a story that was a really interesting flip to the torture porn genre, taking alot of ideas from 70s exploitation and making them work today. The acting also is pretty good, nothing to complain about. The actor for Claudia too, Amelie Daure, is ridiculously easy on the eyes, and a compelling person to watch, as is the Eva character, played by Maude Forget, who plays a very interesting and great character. Where this film faults, and faults hard, is in the direction. Gens decides to take the route of many an MTV director and just assault the viewer with fast cuts and shaky camera, that really, horribly takes away from what's on screen and make one just annoyed at the images. It also has a sort of dirty, dark contrast look to it, that has become all too common, yet wouldn't be too bad is the camera could keep a shot longer than 5 seconds. Basically this films direction is too distracting to enjoy the film, which ends up in the inability to get into the characters at firts and enjoyment of the movie doesn't come until over half-way through, when there is some stillness and the ability to assess the situation and care for the main character. unfortunately the director just has to rape your eyeballs as much as he can with his rock video aesthetics.

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