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Inside: Unrated
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (30th March 2008). |
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The Film
 When it comes to violence and gore, I like to think that I’ve been around the block. While the mainstream American audience has been granted viewings of some really sadistic movies, most notably Alexandre Aja’s re-make of "The Hills Have Eyes" (2006). However, it can be said that most movies that are really disturbing and sadistic have to be sought out. I’m talking about movies like "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) or "Irréversible" (2002), movies that you (or at least I) couldn’t believe how messed up they were. With that said, when a contemporary film makes me think of the preceding movies, it makes me stand up and take notice. "Inside", directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julian Maury, is such a film. The story concerns Sarah (Alysson Paradis), a pregnant woman who gets in a car crash during the film’s opening scene (which leaves her husband dead). Fast-forward 4 months, and it’s Christmas Eve, and also the eve of the baby’s deliverance. During the night however, Sarah has a strange nameless visitor (Béatrice Dalle), who proceeds to attack Sarah, all the while seeming to be aiming for the baby inside of her. People come to check in on Sarah, what with her pregnancy and all, but one by one they are taken out in increasingly graphic and gruesome methods by the mystery lady. As the film progresses, you find out who the psycho woman is and why she is doing what she’s doing, in a satisfying twist. While a gore-hound within me wants to focus on the blood and the guts of the movie, there’s plenty else here to like. The two main actresses shine, and have a decent enough supporting cast behind them. Also, this movie has the best horror sound-track I’ve heard since Aja’s "The Hills Have Eyes". It isn’t moody per se, but just fits extremely well with the disturbing subject matter of the movie. I only really have three main complaints about this movie. The first is that the film in inter-cut a few times with an interior shot of Sarah’s stomach, showing how the baby inside her is reacting. While an interesting idea in itself, these short scenes are produced in laughably bad computer graphics. I wish these scenes had been done practically, as many of the film’s gore shots were. My second complaint has to do with a specific fight near the end of the movie between Sarah and the mystery woman. All I’ll say is there is a part involving a lighter a cooking-spray that just looks downright silly, and completely took me out of the movie. Lastly, there are two scenes in the movie where Sarah uses her camera’s flash to navigate her dark house, and this technique was already used in the first Saw film three years ago. Thankfully, the film rebounds quickly enough, and these problems weren’t enough to heavily hinder my enjoyment of the film. "Inside" is the first movie from 'Dimension Extreme' that lives up to their promise of outer-fringe horror too nasty for a wide release. Yes, we saw a man get his penis bitten off in "Black Sheep" (2006), but it was so comical I would hardly count it as horror. Inside is scary, tense, and mind-snappingly twisted. This is a film I guarantee you will never see in theaters in the US. Without spoiling too much of the movie’s content, let it be known the level of gore in the film. This movie is more violent than anything I have ever seen in mainstream American cinema, and can compare it only to the likes of "Cannibal Holocaust" (a film with an on-screen castration) or Gaspar Noe’s "Irréversible" (which contains a 90 seconds shot of a man getting his face beaten in with a fire extinguisher). These are the films that "Inside" is now rubbing shoulders with, because it delivers kills on these levels. If that sounds like your cup of tea, which it was to me, I highly recommend "Inside". If you could hardly stomach the likes of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2003) re-make, you should probably pass this one up.
Video
"Inside" is offered in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Sadly, while I enjoyed this movie immensely, it wasn’t from must help from the picture. The quality of very inconsistent, as some scenes were lit and looked beautiful, while some, mostly the ones filmed in the dark, looked, well, too dark. There were times where I couldn’t tell exactly what was going on because of this. So in the case of this DVD’s picture quality, what’s good is good, and what isn’t just isn’t.
Audio
The film is offered in both a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 dub track. While most of the time the audio of the movie produces clear sound and dialogue, there wasn’t a whole lot of movement with the sound. However, there were a few choice scene, mainly the “freak out” scenes and gory bits, where the audio is unbelievable, almost as brutal as the images it accompanies. Optional subtitles are included in English and Spanish.
Extras
Sadly Genius Products has only included a masking-of (albeit an amazing one) documentary and trailers. I would have loved a commentary track (which is included on the French region 2 release) on this film. The extras the disc included are picked apart below: First up is "The Making of Inside" documentary, running at 51 minutes 56 seconds, is an impressive full-length documentary concerning the film’s production. The making-of is impressively thorough, covering pretty much every aspect of the film’s production. While watching this, I really got a sense of the cinematic passion but also humility that went into the movie, and it made me appreciate it that much more. The directors aren’t cocky, acknowledging that film is a collaborative effort, allowing everyone on set to have a good time, despite the movie’s dark subject matter. Also included is the theatrical trailer for the film, running at 1 minute and 44 seconds. The disc also includes some bonus trailers, and they are for: - "Diary of the Dead" running at 2 minutes and 19 seconds. - "Storm Warning" running at 1 minute and 37 seconds. - "The Mist" running at 2 minutes and 29 seconds.
Overall
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