Promenons-nous dans les bois

This is a pretty odd little French slasher, that is more concerned about creating an artistic and dark atmosphere than telling a story.

You could say that this movie is taking a bit of a more artistic approach to the genre but unfortunately this doesn't exactly make the movie very interesting or exciting to watch. It does a horrible job at building up- and handling its tension and all of its other horror ingredients.

The film-makers had probably seen a couple of slashers but it doesn't feel like they understood the genre as well. They thought that it was enough to just have a dark atmosphere, throughout the entire movie but this dark atmosphere actually starts to work against the movie. All of the killings are way too dark for instance and it makes it hard to tell what is exactly going on at time. The darkness also ensures that the movie feels pretty tame with its gore, though with a bit more light the movie still could had been a gore-fest, since it has some pretty gruesome killings in it actually.

The story in its core is pretty standard but it loves to see itself as something clever and original. Not that the movie feels pretentious but it's just so that the average movie watcher will find very little original and surprises in this movie, no matter how hard the movie tries at times. You also really won't feel involved with the story at all, or with any of the characters that are in it.

Best thing I can say about the movie is that I didn't hated watching it. I therefore am also going to be quite mild with my rating but still it really isn't a movie that is worth checking out.

5/10

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A group of college aged actors are hired to perform a play at a millionare's house for his son's birthday party. However, they soon start to fall prey to a killer dressed in a wolf suit. Magnificently directed horror flick makes Dario Argento look like an amateur. The whole cast is extremely photogenic and there are some seriously sexy moments. The film also scores some huge scares. However, the script is only average at best. Still, essential viewing for any horror fan.

Rated R; Extreme Violence, Sexual Situations, Nudity and Profanity.

I had great expectations for this movie. Since I am a great fan of Dario Argento and his Italian giallos I was thrilled to hear about this french little "giallo-imitation". The beginning with a mother, her child and a murderer is stunning and kept me glued to my seat. After that we are suddenly in the company of five youths (three girls, two guys) in their early twenties and even if they are quite alright for this kind of movie, they are not very interesting.

Things perk up a bit when they arrive to their destination, a beautiful castle somewhere on the french countryside, and meet their host, a rather creepy guy in a wheelchair who makes sexual advances to one of the boys. He has an autistic son who stares ominously throughout the picture and he is quite eerie actually. The movie still looks great and there is a fair amount of tension for half an hour or so.

But after this introduction of almost all of the characters NOTHING HAPPENS for quite a while. We get quite a few scenes with some tension, but no payoff. Since it is a french production, they also throw in some female full frontal nudity in a lesbian love scene for those who like that sort of thing (I don't..). There is a police showing up from nowhere and he disappears just within a few minutes for some reason, only to show up briefly at the end. And the play these youngsters perform is truly abominable. If I had hired these actors I would have asked for a refund!

The final half hour is a little better (when the killings start - they are lensed in a loving, stylish and gory way), but unfortunately the story never gets really exciting or involving. Real suspense is sadly lacking for the most part. There is a great potential buried somewhere here, but apart from the gorgeous visuals and assured directing, it is mostly ignored. The acting is okay I guess (and most of the cast look good!). Clotilde Courau is an adequate heroine, but has tends to laugh hysterically in all the wrong places. It really got on my nerves in the end.

The camera LOVES Vincent Lecoeur but he hasn't a lot to work with like most of the others. * minor spoiler * The only part with some teeth is Axel de Fersen (the wheelchair guy) and actor François Berléand really hams it up entertainingly in that part. And the old horror movie cliché is still valid, a man or woman in a wheelchair certainly has some hidden secrets. *End of spoiler *

After all this you might expect me to dislike this movie. Wrong! I truly enjoyed it for a number of reasons. It's gaudy look and big-budget visuals (it really is a feast for the eyes). One of the first shots is a bird against a slightly cloudy sky and that image is almost worth the price of admission alone. The luxurious and atmospheric score that accompanies all the mayhem is classy and nice. The murder set-pieces that are choreographed with assurance and style. Let's just hope that this director can sink his teeth in a better script next time. Then we might TRULY be able to look forward to a great horror movie, one that even could become a classic within it's genre!

For the first time, France's broaching a subject which made the reputation and the success of famous movies such as "Scream" or "I know what you did last summer": the serial murder. Here, the serial murder is in keeping with a French nursery rhyme that deals with the big bad wolf. Unfortunately, this movie which is besides Delplanque's first movie is far from being successful. His movie takes back too many elements that became clichés of horror movies like the raven that is synonym of a bad omen, the haunted house and the serie of sinister-looking characters. But above all, the movie doesn't succeed in hiding an obvious lack of inspiration, especially the dialogs that aren't very worked and it doesn't hesitate in borrowing scenes from other movies. I think about "the blair witch project" when one of the actors is disappearing into the woods and about "psycho" with the murder under the shower and moreover Delplanque's making is empty and hollow. Sometimes the movie becomes ridiculous due to a few scenes like the actors' show played in front of Axel de Fersen and Nicolas and a few characters: the cop who turns up at the most awkward moment hasn't got a cop's head and mind. As far as the little boy Nicolas is concerned, he is bad used. During an important part of the movie, he stays still, the vacant look he seems scared by the big bad wolf and he doesn't say a single word. The little actor that epitomizes him hadn't had very much work to do.... Nevertheless Fraçois Berléand is quite convincing in his role of sinister-looking character even if the movie doesn't expand his feelings to Wilfried, one of the young men. I noticed that Berléand seems to feel love to him.... At last, the movie succeeds, sometimes, in creating an ounce of suspense and doubt in the spectator's mind: who is the big bad wolf? Who is responsible of all the murders? You'll know the answers at the end of this listless and dull movie....

This "film" should be presented at all levels of film courses especially the scripting ones because it has so many flaws in plot and lacks so many parts of a feature film that one can hardly imagine better tool for explaining what should the story for the movie be like.I don't understand that high ranking it got and some comments about other levels of depths of the story made me laughing loud.After first 20 minutes I was angry at myself because I picked the film for my friends but then I was enjoying every illogical turn of the plot, dialogue and acting of characters under given circumstances just for fun.I have no doubt that had Monty Python been still in action they wouldn't let this one pass unnoticed-one of the most absurd charcters was the policeman/detective -when he first appeared on screen -just what was this? At the end one of my friends added "and now there will be a shot on a raven and finish" and after it happened just that we laughed through the credits maybe trying to forget how dull and boring this french "masterpiece" was.