Over 10 years ago I saw my first New French Extremity film in college. I took a trip to the Family Video near my college apartment and scanned the aisles. It was the first time I was in charge of picking a movie for a movie night with some friends. Most of the people attending that evening were horror fans, so that’s the vibe I was going for. After walking around for about five minutes I saw it. The top left corner read DIMENSION EXTREME. The middle of the cover read INSIDE in thick red letter, right below that stated UNRATED. The image was someone grasping their pregnant stomach and a pair of sharp dirty scissors questionably close to her stomach. That’s the movie I picked. And that was the last time I was allowed to pick the movies for our movie nights.
Inside follows Sarah Scarangella (Alysson Paradis), a pregnant professional photographer who is still mourning the recent loss of her husband. On one unfortunate Christmas Eve, Sarah’s night is interrupted by an unknown woman (Béatrice Dalle). Not knowing who this woman is, Sarah refuses her entry. After taking a photo of this woman, and developing it, Sarah realizes she has a photo of this unknown woman from earlier in the day. Once Sarah thinks the woman is gone, she heads to bed. And that’s when all hell breaks loose. Bodies will drop, blood will flow, and babies will be birthed.
Written by Alexandre Bustillo and directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, Inside would kick off an excellent career for these two French filmmakers. Brutal, sad, and one of the bloodiest films of all time, Inside is a film that needs to be seen to be believed. Like Calvaire, what makes Inside work so well, besides the tight script and great direction, is the pacing. Instead of a prolonged leadup to a barrage of violence and gore, Inside doles its violence out like a symphony. Each act perfectly leads into the next with the precision you don’t usually see in a debut feature film. The majority of the extreme violence happens to Sarah, which puts a lot of pressure on Alysson Paradis. Paradis sells her performance like Jordan Belfort selling a pen. Her responses are brutal and heartbreaking, while still being extremely grounded.
The special effects makeup department is too vast to list and will eat up my entire word count, but words cannot describe how visceral the practical effects are. From the most minor cut from a mirror to the stairway scene, you can’t help but feel like you’re watching something you should not be watching.
If you haven’t seen the film then this next part will be a huge spoiler, but we need to talk about it. Bustillo’s script takes an unexpected turn toward the end of the film. We learn the reason La Femme is attacking Sarah is due to a car accident. Sarah caused a car accident that took the life of La Femme’s child, killing her unborn baby. La Femme wants Sarah’s baby as reparations. Towards the end of the film, one of the cops who was presumed dead (he was shot with a riot gun) wakes up. His vision is hindered by the riot gun causing him to accidentally attack Sarah instead of La Femme. This attack breaks Sarah’s water, and La Femme kills the cop. Now, Sarah is on the stairs and her baby isn’t coming out–that’s where the scissors come back into play. La Femme has to perform a C-section on Sarah with the scissors, and it is, simply put, gnarly. The film ends with La Femme looking at Sarah’s dead body as she rocks the baby.
This ending is beyond heartbreaking. La Femme’s character almost has a complete turnaround. It’s hard to tell if she’s crying because she has the baby or because she did end up killing Sarah. My personal belief is that it all became too real once she had to kill the cop. If the cop hadn’t broken her water and forced the birth, would La Femme have gone through with this at this point? It’s up to interpretation, but I believe La Femme had repented her actions by that point. That doesn’t make it any better, though.
Next to Martyrs, Inside has one of the most heartbreaking endings of any New French Extremity film. While it’s a difficult watch, it’s an excellent film to rewatch as a case study on how to write an antagonist. To boot, Sarah was La Femme’s antagonist. Sarah was the one who caused the termination of La Femme’s pregnancy–so in a way, this is a revenge film. Bustillo’s script pulls the rug out from all preconceived notions. We thought we were watching one film when in reality, we were being expertly misled by the person we thought was the narrator. It’s a bold move for a debut.
Bustillo and Maury are still going strong in the genre. Their most recent film, The Soul Eater, recently had its premiere at Fantasia Fest. Like Inside, The Soul Eater was gory and violent, while focusing on an overall story that takes precedent. It’s impressive to see bits and pieces of Inside in The Soul Eater, while also adding all the bits and pieces of lessons they’ve learned over their six previous films. Inside is, to me, the best example of New French Extremity; it’s true stomach-churning, gut-wrenching, bloody as hell terror.
