5150 Elm's Way

Canada - Film student gets into a little accident on his bicycle avoiding a black cat. He goes to a nearby home to ask for assistance. When the resident tells him to wait outside while he calls our man a cab HE DOESN'T. I can't stress this enough. He does not wait outside as requested. Instead he barges right into someone's home and privacy. On top of that when he hears someone upstairs, what does he do but invite himself further into the residence. Once he sees blood all over this guy upstairs it's all over for our hero. Now the guy who lives here and has perpetrated what all has happened herein has no choice but to keep our hero under wraps. The story is about the struggle between the two, and other characters, i.e., the mama of the house and the two daughters who live therein to thicken the plot. I waited and searched for this movie for EVER. I am happy to say it was well worth it. This is such an individual flick, similarities to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Frailty notwithstanding.

Picture the scene: There you are cycling along on a random street on your first day as a film student. The birds are chirping. The sky is blue. Life couldn't be any sweeter. Then suddenly. a puddy tat leaps out in front of you, causing you to brake. You're injured, and your vehicle and phone are bust. You head to the first house on your way, and a seemingly nice middle-age man tells you to wait outside while he rings for a taxi for you. He takes a while, so you poke your head round the corner to see what's going on.

Suddenly, a noise from upstairs startles you. Could that be... Someone shouting HELP? You decide, rather stupidly, to investigate... sneaking past the old dude in the process. On the second floor, you enter a bare room... and there in it, is a guy bleeding to death with a stab wound. You panic, and rush to get help... but are stopped by the home owner. Soon, the corpse of the stricken knife victim will be gone, and you'll take his place in those not-too comfortable conditions. Beatings, imprisonment and loud rock music await. Wanna get out of there? You better be good at chess...

The antagonist here is what's known as an 'everyday' psycho... he lives as a respectable citizen with his two daughters and wife, but his spare time is spent as a vigilante, killing those he regards as human trash e.g drug dealers and pedophiles. He is trying to train his oldest child to follow in his footsteps... without much success. His youngest is a mute, and his missus is nothing more than a put-upon doormat. And into their life comes this student. They all react differently to him... the psycho sees him as a potential protégé, the teenage girl sees him as a threat, the put-upon wife sees him as an opportunity to escape and the littlest daughter... well, she just stares blankly into space.

It's a great set-up, and the film captures every moment of our lead's terror and eventual descent into madness as a result of his enforced caging. It's also nice to see a fully fleshed-out enemy who has a legitimate motive for his murderous activities, and his family are well written too. A revelation near the end when we discover what's in his basement is especially horrifying. It's not perfect... there are tedious spots, and you get the feeling if he REALLY wanted to escape early on, he could... the only thing keeping him there is the screenplay. But for unique ideas, and a pretty consistent feeling of dread, this is more than than worth a watch. 6/10

Patrick Sénécal is Quebec's Stephen King. His stories are so intricate and realistic they really make your brain work. It's a great psychological thriller. Let me point out what's great... 1. The acting is really good. I strongly congratulate Marc-André Grondin and Sonia Vachon. 2. Great character development. 3. Great adaptation. 4. Long but captivating. Never a dull moment. 5. Visually stunning. 6. Realistic dialogue and characters. So basically everything is awesome. The reason why i gave this only 9 stars is because the ending was....not disappointing but unfinished. I strongly suggest you get this movie, but beware of some gag-worthy moments.

You'd think people would know that since the "Nightmare on ..." movies ... But seriously though, I haven't looked into the origin of the title and this has no "Freddy" in it. Though it has some other interesting characters in it. And it plays in a weird way and goes places you wouldn't expect. While the main character might do things, you wouldn't expect him to do at first, it does all make sense (well as much sense as there can be).

Of course this develops into a very strange little crazy movie, that will either leave you completely confused at the end or satisfied as can be. A movie about violence, but also about (and maybe even more) craziness. It won't give you any easy answers and the end will put quite some people off (I think that the fact, that it isn't as violent as some other genre movies, might be putting people off too).

It is a very weird movie and I can't really tell you to watch it, because it might not be your taste at all.

Rising like Phoenix from the ashes, the Chess concept began to take over the plot as a plot twist from a claustrophobic drift in such a modest production; that was when the story created its greatest suspense which will never end. I consider the whole as a great and awe-inspiring achievement.

After fell off his bike a film student Yannick needs to stop by a two-story town house to ask for first aid. The father of the family from that house suggests him to make a call. After he goes inside and leaves the door unlocked behind him, Yannick starts his fatal discovery with his first step inside. Very suitable movie poster for this exact moment, when the happenings start to take effect.

First he witnesses the father of the family Jacques Beaulieu committing a murder in front of his eyes, second he's locked up in an unfurnished room, and then he starts having trouble with other family members. Right at this sequence, we see one of the finest achievements in the movie: Excellent-almost perfect- CHARACTERIZATION. What will come out of the blue is all the main characters in this film will have a terrifying destiny. When everything is running organized for Jacques Beaulieu's plans, Yannick turns the outcomes upside down. Like all the other viewers, me too became fond of the CHESSBOARD OF CORPSES. Jacques planned to array the chessmen from the characters he wanted to have, but Yannick's existence also altered the appearances on the chess board.

It's not just unpredictable what's going to happen every other scene, it's also unique in story-telling, too. Deeply detailed PSYCHOLOGICAL LAYOUT, the leading actors(Yannick vs. Jacques) reflect their inner phobias, counter-phobias and behaviour patterns against each other in a very factual way. What's very engaging is the balance of justice which forces us to understand that humankind is not entirely good or evil. The evil character Jacques is only trying to save the public from criminals and sinners, while he's fighting against the evil, he becomes an evil on his own, under a self-built heresy.

Very nicely done adaptation work offers a promising film and it succeeds in production aspects, too. Yannick's psychological trauma moments are served out with nice VISUAL EFFECTS and CINEMATOGRAPHY. It offers an unique style of tension without applying basic horror methods, spooky visuals and sharp shots which forces the viewer to wince.

A few deficiencies on character and story development with possible plot holes: 1/ JACQUES'S ACT OF JUSTICE: Jacques never locks up innocents into the Room Of Sinners. But he kills a sinner in front of Yannick's eyes just because he's there to get aid for his bruises. As a serial killer of the 24 bodies and a thief to steal another 24 corpses, he should've been more careful with Yannick. 2/ MAUDE'S SUICIDE: She never attempted to suicide before suddenly deciding on helping Yannick to escape. 3/ When Yannick started first to see delusions, he sees A FAT MAN WITH GLASSES, and continues seeing the same man every time he sees another delusion. There is no story held for this supporting character. 4/ The story doesn't build the necessary bridge between the happenings and the results for each family member's destiny. Neither the mum or dad ever worried about Michelle, after Anne is sent to the afflicted children's school. When the movie is over, everybody's life will be different. This isn't a suitable premise for a movie in this genre. 5/ Anne's school never made any investigation nor at least a questionnaire about Anne's past.

This film was examining the addiction to murder and the effects of violence in the family in one point. It came to a dead end, finished in a tragedy for everyone, which is idealistically appropriate with its examination. The second point supported the idea of the personal needs to trust the government's justice system to live in safety. Creating a justice other than the current system is only a fantasy. In this case, comparing with SCORSESE'S RAGING BULL, 5150 doesn't make the viewer to feel sad about Jacques the way we felt about Jake La Motta. Both Jacques and Jake seek their own sense of justice, but end up behind the bars. Another reference on Jake La Motta is occurred when Yannick chose to turn back to the Chess-game addiction instead of the choice of freedom, so his paranoia obsession on Chess took over his personal life; just like Jake La Motta happens to become a stage comedian but continue practising his punches and crochets in the backstage of the theater. Unfinished games may cause obsessions, but an unachieved purpose can kill. A Proudly Canadian film. Congrats.