Else (2025)

“French Arthouse Melding of Lovecraft and TETSUO Creates Something Beautiful”

You won’t have seen anything quite like ELSE, the debut feature from director and co-writer Thibault Emin which is getting a digital release from Blue Finch. Set almost entirely within the apartment of Anx (Matthieu Sampeur) the film begins with the aftermath of what he believes to be a one night stand with Cass (Edith Proust). There’s some knockabout romantic interaction and the whole thing is played very lightly, with the production design of Anx’s flat so bright and garish it could almost be mistaken for the playroom of a local kindergarten.

Cass leaves and over the next few days we stay with Ax as he begins to learn of a new disease which is sweeping the country. The symptoms? People seem to be turning to stone and, in some cases, even merging with the concrete of their surroundings. Things soon reach epidemic proportions and the government initiates lockdown. Reunited with Cass the two hole up in Anx’s flat, occasionally interacting with other neighbours by voice only down the laundry chute. Meanwhile the building as a whole begins to change, and it becomes apparent that once things have settled down the world is going to be a very different place.

        Mixing body horror with cosmic horror, one of the many interesting aspects of ELSE is that as our protagonists mutate and meld with their surroundings, so the film changes too. Beginning as a romcom, by the halfway mark the film is more akin to a grim black and white eastern European art house project, while by the end the human characters, and the world they now inhabit, have become nameless things of ethereal beauty. 

ELSE is not a fast paced film but it is one full of imagery that will stay with you. Just be prepared to go with the broad swings from French comedy to Cronenbergian horror to otherworldly serenity and you’ll find yourself enjoying a unique cinematic experience. And don't worry, the title does get explained. Here's the trailer:

Thibault Emin’s ELSE is out on digital from Blue Finch on Monday 2nd March 2026

Meanwhile On Earth aka Pendant Ce Temps Sur Terre (2025)

        It's time for a bit of quiet French science fiction as writer director Jérémy Clapin's first live action feature film gets a release from Blue Finch. His previous work has been in animation and there's a bit of that in here, too.

It's three years since 23 year old Elsa (Megan Northam) lost her brother Frank (Sébastien Pouderoux) on a space mission that disappeared. She spends her days working in a care home run by her mother and staring at the statue of Frank that has been erected on a nearby roundabout. 

But perhaps all is not lost. One night while outside Elsa is contacted by a voice claiming to be one of five alien beings who have her brother. He's safe but they will only release him if she will find human bodies for each of them to occupy. They allow her to speak to Frank to prove his existence and after that it's up to her to decide if she is willing to pay the aliens' price.

The opening act of MEANWHILE ON EARTH plays like a fairy tale of a girl whose brother has been kidnapped by goblins and she has to follow a path into the woods (and chop a tree down) to gain the clues needed to get him back. After that the film continues like the ultra low budget piece of quiet SF that it is. There are no action sequences or explosions here, although there is one gory bit with a chainsaw. 

Peppered throughout the 90 minute runtime are short pieces of animation to illustrate Elsa's dreams of what meeting her brother again might be like and the whole endeavour is charming enough that if you fancy a low-key tale about a possible alien invasion MEANWHILE ON EARTH does the job. Here's the trailer:

Jérémy Clapin's MEANWHILE ON EARTH is out on digital platforms from Blue Finch Releasing on Monday 25th August 2025

Survive (2024)

"Well Executed French Post-Apocalypse Science Fiction"

After its UK premiere at this year's Frightfest, Frederic Jardin's really rather good French post-apocalypse movie gets a Digital release from Signature Entertainment.

Tom (Andreas Pietschmann) and his family are enjoying an ocean holiday on their boat when a worldwide apocalypse occurs. The magnetic poles are reversed causing all sea water to shift onto land and leaving the ocean beds as dry terrain. Marooned their one hope is to reach the bathysphere of oceanographer Nao (Olivier Ho Hio Hen) before, according to his instruments, the poles are to reverse again and the waters will come flooding back to their original position.

Don't worry too much about the science in SURVIVE. Instead just go with it because this is actually a very decent race against time post apocalypse thriller with some surprises along the way (which I'm not going to spoil). The landscape vistas are impressive and probably looked even more so on a cinema screen. 

It's a French movie, of course, so there's going to be urinating and nihilism but this is still a very good mashup of SF ideas, mainly riffing on Charles Eric Maine's fantastically bleak British SF novel The Tide Went Out. In fact SURVIVE is positively cheery compared with that so perhaps the nihilism comment is a bit excessive. But you can rely on there being some unexpected shocks along the way.

SURVIVE is an impressive piece of post-apocalypse cinema, so much so that it wouldn't be at all surprising if an American remake is in the works. By the time you get to the end you can imagine Roland Emmerich taking out his phone to contact Universal. Let's have a trailer:

Frederic Jardin's SURVIVE is out on Digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 30th September 2024