France’s new reign of terror

Though even casual moviegoers have noticed that Hollywood has run out of ideas, this drought of original thought has been especially devastating in the world of horror.

The last decade has triggered a severe case of déjà-vu for horror and gore fanatics as every viable franchise, and many forgotten duds, has been raised from the dead, brainless as the drooling zombies they star.

Legitimate classics like "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" have been ‘re-imagined' alongside remakes of unremarkable 80s slasher pictures like "My Bloody Valentine" and "Sorority Row." The last horror movie to actually create something unique was "Saw," whose elaborate torture laden premise (perhaps a symptom of cultural guilt over the War on Terror?) has since been beaten to death with five sequels in as many years. Instead of forking over $10.50 at the theater to see "Saw VI" or the "Night of the Demons" remake, horror aficionados would be better suited heading to the local video store to check out the deeply disturbing and refreshingly original French films "À l'intérieur" (Inside) and "Martyrs."

While American audiences have been suffering through a glut of dead MTV extras and CGI monsters, France is experiencing a horror renaissance. This Halloween, those that don't mind subtitles are strongly encouraged to avoid the theater and curl up on the couch instead with one of these modern macabre masterpieces. Be warned, you might want to leave the lights on.

Merging old school Hitchcockian suspense with brutally realistic violence, "À l'intérieur" delivers terror that far and away surpasses the usual ‘something went bump' jolts.

After losing her husband in a car accident several months earlier, the melancholy Sarah (Alysson Paradis) is struggling to go on with her life. A full nine months pregnant, Sarah is scheduled to deliver on Christmas Day. Relaxing at home, she is interrupted when a mysterious woman shows up at the door and demands to be let in. The intruder threatens Sarah and reveals an intimate knowledge of her life. The initial encounter is creepy, but things get exponentially worse as Sarah is stalked and attacked by the unknown sadist.

"À l'intérieur's" premise is fairly trite, but it is first time writer/director Alexandre Bustillo's and director Julien Maury's masterful execution that wrings fresh material from a tired concept. The pacing of the film starts and stops appropriately, lulling the viewer with moments of calm before unleashing a torrent of savagery. Special effects and gratuitous gore normally obscure any notions of tension or atmosphere, but "À l'intérieur" manages to seamlessly alternate between both. By the end, the audience is unsure which is more terrifying, the bursts of graphic violence or the moments of apprehension that precede them.

Either way, "À l'intérieur" succeeds spectacularly where so many recent movies have failed. You will never look at a pair of scissors the same way again.

Coming at the genre from a completely opposite angle, "Martyrs" is alternately unforgettable and unwatchable. Giving "Martyrs" a thorough description would be a crime, since much of the viewing pleasures are derived from the cinematic u-turns it takes along the way.

Like the "Saw" and "Hostel" films, Martyrs concerns itself with our current, voyeuristic infatuation with torture. All of these films contain despicable acts performed on innocent victims, but "Martyrs" is unique in providing an explanation for why these people are tortured beyond weakly rationalizing the filmmaker's desire to show gore.

From masked slashers to blood thirsty monsters, horror films are populated with characters that do evil just ‘cause. Their cruelty exists only to put the heroine in peril, and there is no understanding or motivation to be gleaned from their actions. "Martyrs'" circuitous route to its final act keeps viewers in the dark, but when the exposition is finally delivered, it is as shocking as it is philosophically intriguing.

"À l'intérieur" takes the standard horror formula and tightens it into something grander and more eloquent than a high dead teenager body count. "Martyrs," on the other hand, takes fragments that we have seen before; torture, ghosts, revenge, and re-creates them with more thought than they were ever given. The result is two spectacular films decidedly different in their approach to horror. Aside from being French, the only similarity between "À l'intérieur" and "Martyrs" is that both will unnerve you far longer than anything else you see this October.

Watch them now and have fun spending Halloween with the lights on and no scissors in sight.