À l’Intérieur (2007)

Directed by Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury. Starring Alysson Paradis, Béatrice Dalle, François-Régis Marchasson, Nathalie Roussel, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Aymen Saïdi, Hyam Zaytoun. [R]

Grisly horror film takes the “home invasion” concept to the next level—an enigmatic sicko (Dalle) breaks into the home of an overdue pregnant woman (Paradis) with the intention of then, ahem, breaking into the woman’s body to claim the yet-unborn baby for her own. Well-crafted and smartly-paced by directors Bustillo and Maury, it stumbles a bit in the second half with geographical inconsistencies (the lion’s share of the film takes place inside the same house, and the killer seems to slink around and vanish at will) and too many stupid character decisions, but sticks the landing with an unflinchingly brutal and haunting finale. The decision to withhold the villain’s motivation for so long might have been a mistake—the unknown is terrifying, yes, but after the first couple of attacks, the bogey(wo)man becomes just your average mad slasher, so revealing her dark designs earlier would have made the escalating depravity and body count hit harder. As gripping as it is mean-spirited, the pic delivers the vicious goods for gorehounds, so be warned: the movie is extremely violent, and weak-stomached viewers—especially expectant mothers (or fathers)—may be traumatized. Also known as Inside, which is used for the title of the 2016 American remake.

73/100