Livid (2011)

Any movie that blatantly refers to the excellent classic HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH gets my respect, but when I realized that they were channeling the often misunderstood and under appreciated Jean Rollin, I knew they were after my own heart. LIVIDE may not be as cringeworthy as their previous effort À l'INTERIEUR a.k.a. INSIDE (2007) but then what can possibly more so than putting an 8 month pregnant woman in constant peril for 70 minutes as they did with INSIDE? (which I always felt was a bit of a cheap shot as effective as it may be) With LIVIDE directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury go supernatural and give the entire movie a phantasmagoric look and feeling that certainly gives many nods to great movies and directors of the past but at the same time they root the film in today's world and don't resort to any cheap tricks which makes this dark fantasy horror movie a very welcome breath of fresh air compared to the tiresome found footage movies and asinine remakes that seem to dominate today's horror movies as well as the repeatedly FAILED attempts to make an '80s throwback.

Fmovies: Chloé Coulloud plays trainee care worker Lucie Klavel, whose first day on the job sees her visit the crumbling country home of elderly coma patient Mrs. Jessel. On learning from her boss that Jessel, a once successful ballet teacher, is rumoured to have a vast fortune hidden somewhere in her house, Lucie, her boyfriend, and his brother break into the old building to search for the treasure, but uncover a terrifying secret instead.

I absolutely loved French directing duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's brilliantly inventive and very bloody debut Inside, which only makes it all the more disappointing that their second film, Livid, is such a complete and utter mess, a hodge-podge of half-baked ideas wrapped in a stale 'freaky fairytale' aesthetic that makes not a lick of sense.

A gang of thieves breaking into a building only to discover something terrible lurking inside is hardly the most original of ideas, and Livid's surreal, oneiric style, which includes the use of such trite horror clichés as bizarre toys, broken dolls, creepy children, and stuffed animals, only adds to the sense of deja vu. The ironic thing is, when the directors do steer their film into more original waters, matters only get worse, the pair delivering plenty of surreal spookiness and some decent gore but failing to give a rational explanation for any of the madness they depict.

Vampiric creatures; a 'broken' ballerina given a clockwork spine; soul transference via moth; ethereal will-o-the-wisp flames; a flying house: undeniably very bizarre, but what the hell it's all about is anyone's guess. Bustillo and Maury sure aren't telling...

3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

Looking round a spooky old house inhabited by no-one but a comatose old lady for hidden treasure is usually not a good idea. Especially on Halloween. At the dead of night. This building is chock full of stuffed creatures, dusty relics and boarded up windows. But our three interlopers are desperate to get out of their dead-end lives, so in they go... and it turns out to be the worst mistake of their (soon to be cut short) young lives.

The best horror films always have a good atmosphere, and you can feel every creak of the floorboards and each goose-pimple developing as the intrepid trio do their rounds. There are no cheap, easy deaths here... each one is built up careful and slow, until the nasty denouement. And these are people who given *gasp* BACK STORIES and what they says sounds like it could come from the mouth of a person, rather than a simple lamb to the slaughter.

I'm not quite sure I understood all the plot details (even at the end) but what I can report is the execution is ingenious and genuinely disturbing. A horror with some semblance of originality, who'd have thunk it? Perhaps because it was made in France... away from the jaded genre prototypes of the USA. Coming soon: a remake, where they remove most of the chilling ambiance, and replace it with an unsubtle bloodbath, And a sassy robot. You know it's certain... 7/10

Livid fmovies. I'll say the worst things first. There will be a lot of "WTF did I just see" in the end. There will be loose ties and lingering questions. There will be some artsy stuff and no clear explanations to many things. If you don't mind that, or if you actually embrace that kind of stuff, I recommend "Livide" very highly.

Acting is surprisingly good. Right from the start, you'll notice that even characters that appear for one minute, really do a convincing job. I really loved Chloé Coulloud. Not only was she pretty good in her role (though I must admit that it was the supporting actors, not the three main characters that stole the show), she's one of the most naturally beautiful women I've seen in years. You'll notice it.

This is just as much horror as it is some crazy fantasy. It often feels surreal, and there's even quite a lot of gore. I was fascinated with the main mystery as well. Funny, because I watched "Cassadaga" before this, and it had the same three elements as "Livide": Supernatural, gore and mystery. While I wasn't impressed with Cassadaga, I loved this one. Cinematography is often beautiful and creepy, as should be when there's an old mysterious house as the main location. I loved the creepy stuff, the whole artistic design and interior of the house. Stuffed animals, dolls, paintings, statues, colors, lights, the works. And no, they're not there just for cheap jump-scares. While watching this, I really felt I was traveling in that same surreal house with the main cast, room by room. There's lots of imaginative, fairy-tale like material, and while I wouldn't necessarily throw Guillermo Del Toro - comparisons around, I can understand why many people do.

That's it. I'm not a fan of french films, but this one won me over. It goes a little nuts at the end, doesn't answer all main questions and that may frustrate some people - me too, not going to lie - but this was still a very welcome trip. Not once was I bored nor checked my watch. This movie captivated me and my imagination to the very end. A little frustrating movie, but so very well done. I can't really pinpoint the main element that made me like this so much. Perhaps the overall quality and that certain "magic" that some movies just have.

Livide is a French horror film i the style of The Orphanage, in that it has just as much heart and fantasy as it does horror. A young woman begins working as a nurse and sees a number of elderly and sick patients. One in particular catches her eye, an old woman in a coma, who it is said, has a treasure hidden on the grounds. The young nurse and her boyfriend, along with a friend, decide to find the treasure. They break into the house but get more than they bargained for. The film builds up a meticulous but thoughtful pace, bringing us slowly into the world of this house at night. The fiilm keeps the horror at a distance at first, with loud noises from upstairs etc. Once it kicks off the gore is grotesque, but used sparingly, making it even more effective. Some of the visuals are of pure fantasy and even though they are at first horrifying, Maury and Bustillo soon use them poetically. A floating vampire girl in the sunlight, a wind-up corpse etc. All scary at first, become even more disturbing as they reach us on an emotional level. I felt the film tries to do too much in the third act. It tries to give us horror and fantasy, backstory in flashbacks, kills, and exposition, to the point it got a bit muddled. Kills were suddenly followed by long jumps into the past. The film does best when it shows its story visually, which thankfully, it chooses to do most of the time. Great performances, stunning visuals, a unique feel, and a mature handling of difficult themes makes this a worthwhile horror.

(source: www.top10horror.com ) I watched this movie during the Film 4 FrightFest Halloween marathon last year in London and next to Human Centipede II it was the most anticipated movie of the night. Being a French horror enthusiast I couldn't wait until the movie would be screened and after an awful show of Lulu Jarmen's "Bad Meat" (2011) it finally started.

Lucy, an absolutely adorable young girl, with two eyes of different colours is the main character of Livid. She is just starting her training as a caretaker under Wilson's eye, a woman you want to trust but she just seems old and bitter. Lucy is brought to a big mansion where she meets Mrs Jessel, an old lady who has been in a coma for many years. Wilson tells her a story about a treasure that is believed to be somewhere inside of the house and that, Wilson herself, has tried to find it but she never did.

After the first day of work Lucy meets her friends and tells them about the treasure rumour. The group of young people decide to break in Mrs Jessel's house with an intention to find the valuable objects to steal. They don't know what awaits them in the walls of the house thoughÂ…

Seeing Alexandre Bustillo's and Julien Maury's "Inside" (A l'interieur) (Top 10 French Horror list) I knew to expect only the unpredictable. I was expecting a twist and a lotÂ… tons of blood and French cinema didn't let me down at all.

At the very second I saw Lucy's eyes (you could totally see which eye is fake by the way) I remembered some stories I've heard about people with two-coloured eyes. Later Lucy explains that this is indeed called heterochromia and people are believed to have two souls, one for each eye. We learn a lot about Lucy's past through flashbacks (anyone recognizes the psycho woman from "Inside" as Lucy's mummy?) which makes us feel for the character. Everything framed with the beautiful music makes you feel nice and cosy watching the movie untilÂ… horrible stuff happens.

Overall a stunningly done horror film, that doesn't lack in everything a horror movie should have, ended up in my French favourite top 10 list and I would watch it again anytime I if had a chance. I definitely recommend this movie no matter what you are into. If you like mysteries, gore, paranormal movies, just go for it and enjoy the ride.