Customer Reviews

Frontier(s) (Unrated Director's Cut)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It seems like France right now have come up with some of the best horror films of the past couple of years, I think it started off with High Tension and the controversial revenge thriller Irreversible. Frontier(s) has come out during a period where horror films right now are going through a decline in quality and it seems like Hollywood are only interested in re-making old horror films, while Frontiers wasn't as brutal as other reviewers have said it still was a great film although I'm not sure why it got an NC-17 rating, there are some gory parts and some extreme violence but I have the feeling that I've already seen this before and there was some cliches in it and the villains are neo-nazi cannibals thats probably the only difference. The film was written and directed by Xavier Gens and his script was outstanding but there were a few problems, it does take a few elements from modern horror films and mixes it up with some older 70's and 80's slasher films. The story follows a group of young bank robbers who are on the run from the law while violent protests and riots are taking place against a current election which is being held. Some of them make it out while others aren't so lucky, the surviving members of the group take refuge in an inn located on the outskirts of town to escape from the cops, this is the point in the film which becomes very familiar if you've seen TCM or House Of 1000 Corpses they meet a group of weirdos two guys and two women and these weirdos like killing, torturing and messing around with their victims. Sure there is some bloody mayhem that happens during the course of the film but I wasn't shocked its as if it was trying to hard however it was still great, one particular scene involves a band saw which was very gory and a guy who has his tendons sliced off with large metal clippers (this was ripped off from Hostel) as well as some other creative torture and death scenes like a large oven there is some slightly disturbing stuff. The victims in the film were quite sympathetic and weren't like the typical characters you would see in this type of film, they were likable except for one guy. There were some great chase scenes and one very memorable scene that takes place in a dark tunnel that raises the level of suspense and tension, the film also kicks into high gear during the second half and the villains were truly despicable nazis which makes it great when the final victim gets his/her revenge I'm not going to spoil it was a surprise. I've seen so many awful horror movies these last couple of days and its nice to finally see something great, its all about the action and gore which was all done with such class that it doesn't feel like a cheap exploitation it has a good atmosphere that draws you in, while not the most original horror film I've seen it was still very tight and fast paced I give this film a rating of 4.5/5 stars. If you enjoyed Haute Tension and Inside then you might like this, it seems like France is the new country for horror flicks. Now I haven't seen Inside but if its as great as the reviews have said then it must be awesome and worthwhile. Check out the excellent reviews done by Dave K., D.Wilson, Clint and Woopak, they've all done a great job of reviewing Inside so I'm convinced. I highly recommend this film to hardcore horror fans but if your the type of person thats squeamish and hates over the top blood and gore then forget it.

By the time "Frontier(s)" was over my teeth really hurt. That was because I kept clenching them during the moments in this French horror film (the correct spelling of which would be "Frontière(s)"). This 2007 film is being promoted as the ninth of the 8 films 2 die 4 for last year's After Dark Horrorfest, because when it earned an NC-17 rating in the States it had to be pulled from the lineup. So it has the whole vibe of being too much horror for Horrorfest, which means the expectations are pretty high when you sit down to watch this one. On the other hand, the second crop of Horrorfest films were rather disappointing so you figure this one has to be an improvement, and the good news is that it certainly delivers. I am not the sort to close my eyes while watching the gory parts of movies (although I did close one of them in sympathetic reaction to the opening game of "Saw II"), which is why I went the clenched teeth part. A bad case of the measles as a child took out some of the calcium in my permanent teeth, so I am surprised some of them did not crack.

France is in the throes of some political upheaval having to do with the election of a hard line government, and while a century ago this might have sent young people to the barricades, in these trouble times they turn to crime. With the cops on their trail they decide to hole up in this filthy little bed and breakfast. This, of course, turns out to be a really bad mistake, and while the victims are not deserving of our sympathy on the basis of their characters, they are the hope of the future compared to their tormentors. There is really nothing more to say in laying out the plot, because you should just enjoy the ride, if you sense of the word "enjoy" encompasses what happens in this film. The film breaks down into three acts and how much you like the movie will probably come down to whether you think the final act tops the second.

Writer-director Xavier Gens ("Hitman") gets the credit for coming up with all this sick stuff, but credit also goes to cinematographer Laurent Barès, who gives the film is visual style, and especially film editor Carlo Rizzo, who crafts some moments of bizarre beauty through his creative use of montage. A few horror films of recent vintage have attempted to be "arty," and "Frontier(s)" certainly has some moments where you can argue it is cinema rather than just a horror movie.

The obvious cinematic touchstone here is supposed to be "Hostel," but I was reminded more of the original version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." You will pick up echoes from a lot of other films, but it speaks to the film that I never got the feeling this was a pastiche. I still think "Wolf Creek" is at the top of the list for the torture-porn genre, although I am sure I have not seen everything that is out there. But "Frontier(s)" is closer to that than it is to the "Hostel" movies or "The Saw Trilogy," where there are mystery element in play that divert your from the blood, guts, and whatnot. This is just one of those bloody movies where you wait to see if anybody is going to get out alive.

All I can say now is: What a difference a movie makes. "Frontier(s)" was replaced in the Horrorfest 2007 lineup by "Unearthed," which means that what would have been my highest rated one of the 8 films 2 die 4 was replaced by the one I rated the lowest (although you have to grant that they were right not to have included "Unearthed" in the first place). The original Horrorfest lineup earned an average rating of 3.7 from me and this year's were a step lower at 3.0; but replace "Unearthed" with "Frontier(s)") and the average jumps to 3.4. I had sworn that next year I would rent the Horrorfest movies rather than go ahead and buy them when they came out on DVD (we did not get the festival the second time around), but I am glad I saw enough of the buzz about "Frontier(s)" to go ahead and pick it up. The only real complaint is that there are no DVD extras. Final Note: I wonder if the people behind the After Dark Horrorfest have noticed that their best flicks are being made in foreign lands, because that's certainly what has happened so far.

When this made the top ten of 2007 on BloodyDisgusting.com I was fervently trying to find some way to find it. I looked for months. I kept hearing how brilliant it was. Usually when I put a lot of time into finding something that I know so relatively little about, it ends up in a huge letdown. This absolutely broke that rule. Some nice viscera gets sprayed around, but the compelling acting and character nuances are what really sink the hooks in deep when the blood starts flying. There's a shaky camera technique that gets irritating only a little bit during some driving sequences, but overall the production and the director's sensibility are sharp. I'd describe it as having some classic 70s and 80s horror trappings (cannibals, nazis, freaks, backwoods family) that are wrapped up in a nice art-house package.

Go out of your way to watch this movie. You'll be glad you did.

yes yes yes yes yes yessssssssssss. very entertaining. it had me on the edge of my seat from the first to final frame. very bloody, but doesn't only rely on that. there are many fun chase scenes on feet and a couple on the road. even though this dvd says After Dark Horrorfest on the side, it isn't stupid. we've all been through this. i've even been tempted to rent a couple before and they all suck. trust me, this one is ACTUALLY amazing. they say the reason they took it out of the festival was because it's rated NC-17. i bet the real reason is because it's actually good.

To say that this French thriller is derivative would be a compliment. FRONTIERES follows a road map of other previous films. It travels from RESERVOIR DOGS Place down PSYCHO Lane as five (soon to be four) friends escape Paris with a duffel bag full of cash. There's a signpost up ahead. It reads "FRONTIERES" with an arrow pointing right to HOSTEL and one pointing to the left to TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (in little letters below that it says "the remake"). A little on up the road there's a detour marked THE DESCENT. All of these places are in the idyllic French countryside in the county of HAUTE TENSION.

Throw in a Nazi war criminal as a patriarch, some terrifically hot girls, and a few thuggish brutes and you've got all the makings of the next Rob Zombie film. I was casting the American remake in my head as the events of FRONTIERES predictably unfolded. The joke, of course, is that the film is named FRONTIERES but it doesn't boldly go into any territory that horror fans (especially those enthralled with torture porn horror) haven't been to before.

This one was awesome. The french are dominating the horror genre in my opinion. I can't remember a french film I didn't like - even going back as far as Diabolique and Eyes Without a Face. I guess I tend to enjoy movies where the unlikely characters are able to succeed through all of the horror - check it out, without the kids!

Frontier(s) or Frontière(s) is an Xavier Gens (Hitman) film that was so violent that After Dark Films declined to include it among its "8 films to die for" for HorrorFest 2007. The MPAA, rightfully I might add, stamped Frontier(s) with an NC-17 rating, prompting the distributor to shoot for a limited American unrated theatrical release coinciding with this release on DVD. This is a French film and given that I felt the French horror film Inside was among the best horror films to come out in quite some time, my hands were wet with anticipation to see this little movie. The comparisons to Inside are undeniable as it is not only French and violent to the extreme, but its protagonist is pregnant and the film is set among the chaos of French riots and civil unrest. There was a message hinted at in spurts during Frontier(s) but the film was just too vile to place emphasis on Gens's political leanings.

Frontier(s) follows a gang of thieves who exploit law enforcement during riots to commit a pretty hefty heist. The robbery is botched and the gang of four splits up. The gang ends up in some rural hostel that turns out to be a hive of Neo-Nazi cannibal kidnappers and torturers. Let the fun begin.

One thing is for sure, the story is not original at all. In fact, it is very formulaic and I didn't like the fact that I felt urged to side with this gang of thieves, so I rooted for Goetz, a character who is an absolute monster of a villain and made for some entertaining and intense moments. Considering that we are seeing nothing new here and we may wonder why we're being shown these kinds of events in the first place, this was done pretty well. I liked the atmosphere in most scenes and the feeling of suspense was pretty strong when it needed to be. The acting was not good but it was definitely better than most films of this ilk. The thing I liked about this movie most is that it didn't pull punches and definitely should not have. That is kind of the point of horror films and it is probably the reason the other HorrorFest films don't work as well as this does. Frontier(s) is to After Dark Films' "8 films to die for" as Takashi Miike's Imprint was to Showtime's Masters of Horror, meaning that it was initially rejected but is probably more true to the horror genre than the accepted works were to begin with.

There were some legitimately grueling scenes that pushed my boundaries in terms of comfort. So, as a modern horror film it worked pretty effectively and I give it a mixed review leaning toward a slight recommendation. However, if you know you're into this sort of thing, then this movie is top notch.

Saw this tonight on DVD and thought it was damn good. Sadly, though, this is the only AfterDark flick that I would ever suggest renting as all the others that I have seen [] to infinity! This didn't even really seem to fit the ADHF line-up as it was very well-made and actually enjoyable and scary and gross as all hell! I watched the Unrated DVD and it certainly lived up to that! LOADS of gore and guts and awesome F/X! I have never seen a better, more beautiful blood-soaked actress than the French girl in this movie. She was amazing! There was just 'something' about the way she looked, hair cut short, wearing that strange 'wedding' dress, wielding a large axe and an even larger pick-axe DRENCHED in blood that made me feel giddy. I really got into her character and believed in her and wanted her to get sweet revenge on those sick, sick Neo-Nazi-cannibal freaks. The movie didn't seem at all contrived as one would expect. The evil, demented characters were frighteningly 'real' and these types of monsters could very well be living among us and probably are! Anyway, I cannot rave enough about the girl who played the lead role of Yasmine. She should get a horror Oscar! The way all of the characters, evil and innocent, were killed was, for lack of a better word, great! The deaths seemed to 'fit' the story well, without seeming too phony-baloney. I found myself anxious and excited and saying 'Get up! Run! GO! Fight! Kick his []! Kick her []!' when Yasmine would get smacked and punched and knocked to the ground and shot at but she always fought back, even though she was exhausted and screaming and weak, and I was totally rooting for her all the way! There was only one very small moment in the film that left me scratching my head: When the 2 male friends get run off the side of the road and end up entering the old mine they end up crawling into a hole in the wall and one of them can see light at the other end. The first guy to enter the hole was the blond guy and the bald friend followed behind him. At one point the bald guy (using his small digital camcorder for light) turns back to look down the passge that they are crawling through and see what looked to me like some evil, scary demon faced creature head with glowing eyes coming up behind them. He starts screaming for his friend to GO! GO! GO! but I was never really sure what it was he saw. I kept rewinding that scene and could not figure out what the hell that thing was. And the story never touched on it again. Was it one of the weird mutant 'children' kept in the mines? Was it a giant rat monster? Does anyone have any idea? Anyway, SEE THIS MOVIE! Hooray, Frenchies! Keep making great, gory goodness!

this is one of the better horrorfest movies . if I was just rating the horrorfest I would probably give this 5 stars but as an over all movie I have seen better horror films . if you wanna go on blood alone this is a 5 star movie but as far as it being scary I would give this a 1 star . it was a good movie and worth watching but there were some parts that drug on (like the first 30 min of the movie) and it was all subtitled . I can watch movies that are subtitled , some of them are very good (like Pan's Labrenth and the Orphanage) but for some reason it was if it went to fast and you payed more attention trying to keep up with the reading it took your focus away from some of the movie . I payed $7 for this movie and it was worth it . when you watch this movie just keep in mind that this is one of the horrorfest movies , if you like the horrorfest collections then you will probably like this .

I believe what cured me of my aversion to subtitled movies was THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. Then, PAN'S LABYRINTH and AUDITION took away all of my worries forever! Since then, some of my favorite movies have been subtitled. FRONTIER(S) is a worthy addition to the growing list of classic terror tales from France (i.e. High Tension, Inside, etc.) It's got thrills, chills, and enough bizarre characters and atmosphere to please any horror maniac! There are nods to TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE ("the family"), THE DESCENT (claustraphobic underground tunnels), and HOSTEL (deceptive babes and torture), combined w/ a cool, utterly ghoulish storyline. FRONTIER(S) is a shocker for those who found the majority of the HORRORFEST films to be tepid at best. Karina Testa is magnificent as Yasmin. She is transformed from a mouse to a savage, vengeful survivor before our eyes! I was quite impressed. Buy this one now, and you won't mind the subtitles...