Estranhos em Casa

"Furie" a.k.a. "Get In" is a good French meanie of a thriller, part one man's tough inner struggle over life, part house invasion thriller, sprinkled with some social commentary and all clothed up in the elements of an art-house. "Furie" entertains us provokingly, and succeeds at putting the viewer in a prolonged uncomfortable feeling, but also has some problems with pacing, realisticity and morality.

Paul (Adama Niane), a high school history teacher, is happily returning home from the summer vacation with his family, but his life starts getting real complicated when his son's babysitter and her husband, whom Paul lend the house for the duration of the holidays, refuse to leave and claim themselves the official tenants. Paul and his family are forced to live in a trailer park while trying to reclaim the house. Nothing goes as it should, and Paul befriending trailer park's manager Mickey (Paul Hamy) isn't helping either.

"Furie" tells a tough and rough tale - on their mission to regain their home, Paul and his family are constantly being put through many hardships - this is where a lot of social commentary has been put into, themes about simple man's actual importance in society, racism, discrimination, family, and both the lack of masculinity and toxic masculinity. Enough of these situations and the circumstances surrounding them put viewer in an uncomfortable position, making him think about the real life awfulness that can happen, and what does one do then. Director Olivier Abbou, however, seems to be struggling with maintaining a morality and message that's not a little corrupted/conflicted, and more importantly, struggling to build a better part of a thriller solely on social commentary rather than accompanying it with other devices of tension. In the very beginning, "Get In" claims to be based on a true story, and first servings of the story might be, but later on, especially in the third act, the movie appears more and more of an typical (but decent) action/horror thriller. One character had the physical endurance of a T-800, couple too many resurrections there.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the acting performances, I think in this case it was more the actor's work than the writers that made me root (or the opposite) for the characters. Adama Niane made a great protagonist in his continuous struggle to find his true self, Paul Hamy is one nasty villain, and Stephanie Caillard was done a bit of an injustice with a character that should've been more likeable.

Atmospherically and aesthetically, despite being a B movie, "Furie" does a great job, visually it feels downright raw and serious, and often is audiovisually reminiscent of an art-house horror movie, a genre in which France has more than a few good movies. From a technical standpoint, "Furie" is a great indie flick.

"Get In" is a flawed movie, but it's also an interesting movie, overall proving to be visually, atmospherically and morally a somewhat tough experience that, sadly, can also cross the lines with "tiring". I recommend this to all who enjoy French horror movies, house invasion thrillers and grim social commentary. My rating: 6/10.