Customer Reviews

MALEFIQUE (DVD MOVIE)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

That's what the tagline on the cover says,

and nothing could be closer to the truth!!

Of course it's French, (comes dubbed or subtitled)

Why wouldn't it be??

All the new, exciting horror movies

seem to come from that broken neck of the woods nowadays.

(i.e.: Frontiers, Martyrs, Inside, Irreversible,

Baise Moi, High Tension, Trouble Every Day, In My Skin, Them, etc.)

This is one of those movies that has a low-budget,

one, you as a viewer, are completely unaware of!!

Every penny (or French equivalent)

was obviously utilized to the fullest extent.

Never once does the lack of a budget detract from the overall experience.

The plot, while it was a bit far-fetched,

(something akin to a "Tales from the Darkside" episode)

was never anything but engaging.

The whole movie takes place in a tiny jail cell,

and despite the lack of a lavish setting,

the movie never grows dull, not even for a nano-second.

The characters: (a trans-sexual, an autistic savant,

a greedy businessman, and an intellectual who murdered his wife.)

are all very well developed, though initially you know little about each player.

But as the story progresses, each character is revealed,

not for their crime, but for their character.

In their cell the group finds a tome, hidden behind a loose stone in the wall.

A tome belonging to that of a black magician,

who resided in the same cell, a century previous.

In the journal he writes of many spells,

but one spell in particular catches their attention;

a spell to escape.

The setting is dismal, but it perfectly resembles their situation.

(and the budget at hand)

The characters are criminals, but they are human.

The plot is far-fetched, but the tension is right in your face.

It's similar to Hellraiser

in that it features a magical object that opens doorways to another world.

It's like Cube

in that it features a group of individuals trapped in a hopeles situation,

(one of which is an autistic savant), with little means of escape,

and even less understanding of how to.

It, also like Cube, worked wonders with a similar low-budget.

So if you liked either of those flix,

or are just enjoying French horror at the moment,

you can't go wrong with this one.

It's another breath of fresh air, for the horror genre.

Which is nice considering it's been suffocating with mediocrity as of late.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

The easy way out is most often cluttered with complications.

French horror films are a real rarity, but Malefique throws in one image that would leave David Cronenberg green with envy and which would have the MPAA running for the shears: as one of its quartet of convicts looks at a montage of body parts cut from porn magazines and pasted to the wall, one of them turns into a real vagina with a blinking eye. That should tell you straight off if this film is for you or not, as does the opening moment of do-it-yourself open-heart surgery. In truth, it sounds more graphic on paper than in execution, with director and Woody Allen lookalike Eric Valette using the early gore the way Cronenberg used the exploding head in Scanners to create a sense of unease about what he'll come up with to top it. The answer, in terms of gore, is not very much at all, but there are some interesting plot twists and plenty of atmosphere en route. It's a good example of an imaginative low-budget film, set almost entirely in one (admittedly roomy) prison cell where the four inhabitants find a mysterious book that seems to offer a way out of jail if they can decipher its formulas and incantations. The only problem: they don't ask why, if its previous owner truly escaped, the book was left behind or, indeed, where the book will take them...

In many ways it's an old fashioned film, relying heavily on performances and characterization for much of the first half of the tight running time. Luckily the vaguely familiar cast bring more to their parts than is often the case in no-budget genre films, although it'll be interesting to see how the original characters fare in the planned Hollywood remake (Valette himself is scheduled to remake Takashi Miike's One Missed Call). Somehow I don't think the transsexual rapist is likely to make the transition intact...

"Malefique"

Is another horror offering from France .

Although somewhat slow moving in the beginning

it has some very bizarre and entertaining moments .

Perhaps the most visually unsettling and entertaining element as far as characters and the film itself was the so called Transsexual Marcus who is more masculine acting and looking than any of the other cellmates,the only thing seemingly that makes him a so called Tranny is that he has huge breasts that look incredibly real.

Some of the visuals that got to me were when he cradled the Idiot Savant Daisy in his lap and mockingly breast feeds him ,he rapes the oldest of the four cellmates on a regular basis making me very confused because transsexuals as a general rule hate the genitalia they are assigned at birth ,seeing as it takes place almost entirely in a prison cell the movie depends on good character development to make it work and it does just that.The movie itself is visually pleasing to horror fans and the ending is a good payoff .All in all a pretty good film.

Malifique is a film worth any true cinephile's attention, especially if one enjoys horror. From the opening scene, through the end, it captivates the viewer with a story that taunts the prisoners on the screen.

While there are some disturbingly graphic moments, it is much more cerebral than the average horror film. Even if you deduce some of the plot twists, it's still very entertaining.

Man, I'd been waiting for this film to hit region one for years and now that it has I believe it was well worth the wait. Considering Valette's latest genre entry, the American remake of Takashi Miike's One Missed Call starring Shannyn Sossamon, I'd have to say this is probably the man's crowning achievement when it comes to genre filmmaking. There's no doubt in my mind though that, with the right script and actors, he can continue creating films with just as much suspense and otherworldly danger as Maléfique.

The characters were all fantastic and very distinct which went a long way considering the entire film plays out in a small prison cell! The cinematography and score were pretty uneventful, forgettable even, but the special effects were solid...scare but solid. I should also mention that I watched the film with the English dubbing and I gotta say, it was absolutely fantastic, you don't come across many dubbing tracks as solid as the one BCI provided. The voice actors did phenomenal jobs with the material so don't be afraid to check this out.

Hooray for supernatural cinema with suspense! If you're looking for a new flick, well relatively new flick, that offers up an interesting premise, some wild black magic sequences and a Goosebumps-esque finale, don't hesitate to check it out. It's not going to knock your tool in the dirt or anything but Valette has skills and this is one film I see slipping under the genre radar and into oblivion, much to my dismay. It's solid and you could do much worse. Let's hope somebody has acquired this from the now defunct BCI.

It's hard for me to review this item, because I`ve found the movie really good and well made which would have resulted in a 5 star review. Problem was that I didn`t recieve the DVD like it was labeled (NON-USA FORMAT)but got send the french standard DVD (I think the deal went over at a market place address). First the DVD box was damaged and then I've found out that the movie wasn`t the Australian import which was labeled as a kind of director`s cut with a running time of 133 min.. Like mentioned above it was the standard french DVD with a running time of 85 min., without any special features. So don`t buy this item, because it`s unlikely to recieve what you have bargained for. I`ve sent mine back.