La meute

Particularly since the new Millennium, France is by far THE nation to keep under close monitoring when it comes to the release of original, boundary-breaking and downright shocking new movies in the horror genre! They released already a handful of instant classics, like "High Tension", "Inside", "Frontier(s)" and "Martyrs" and a fair bunch of titles that are far more worthwhile to check out than the average American or Asian accomplishments. Naturally, of course, they also have their share of epic failures and the inevitable "close-but-no-cigar" efforts. "The Pack", a co-production with Belgium - would fit right into this last category. Writer/director Franck Richard mixes old and tiresome genre clichés with fresh and courageous ideas, and the overall result is a massively uneven and quirky film. What starts out as a seemingly commonplace rural road horror movie abruptly alters into something unclassifiable; partially survival flick and partially zombie adventure. But not your typical kind of flesh-eating rotten corpses, but more like the pioneering type of zombies as they featured in "White Zombie", "I walked with a Zombie" and "Plague of the Zombies". The sudden change of course I found titillating, but these most fascinating parts of the screenplay are underdeveloped and chaotic. Perhaps Richard shouldn't have wasted his (and our) time with the overlong, dull and derivative first half and should have moved on to the more creative and ingenious plot a lot quicker. But the main issue of "The Pack", according to yours truly at least, lies with the mundane character development and ineffective atmosphere building. Lead chick Charlotte is another headstrong and rebellious feminist on the run for something which we don't know. She picks up a mysterious and not-so-handsome stranger whose silence clearly reveals a hidden agenda. They encounter psychopathic bikers, a creepy corpulent woman owning a ramshackle truck-stop diner and a goofy old guy with a funny T-shirt. These are hardly new and exciting characters to feature in a horror movie and thus you set your expectations quite low from the beginning already. The numerous attempts to insert black humor completely miss their effect and Franck Richard also doesn't make full use of the morbid set pieces and filming locations. The ghouls (and the brief info we receive of their background) compensate for part of the disappointment, though. They're very disturbing and petrifying monsters to behold. They actually look quite Clive Barkeresque, if you ask me. There's some decent acting as well, most notably from Yolande Moreau as "La Spack" and the terrific Philippe Nahon, whom genre fanatics will certainly recognize immediately from "Haute Tension", "Irréversible", "Seul Contre Tous" and "Calvaire".

On a lonely country road, Charlotte ( a young angry woman ) is travelling in her rusty old car ... clearly running away from something, which is unclear. Along the way she picks up a hitch hiker by the name of Max. Max is a strange man, but Charlotte could use the company. When they stop at a Truck Stop, owned by a woman named "La Spack" , Max mysteriously goes missing when he goes into the mens restroom. When no one else is giving her satisfactory answers concerning his whereabouts, Charlotte decides to investigate further, and unknowingly falls into a trap.

This is another very recent New Wave French Horror that may initially disappoint you to start with, but on second and third viewing, the film comes across as a lot of fun, but not much else. The characters were paper thin, but there were some very memorable performances, in particular, Yolande Moreau as La Spack. A very sinister and unique type of villain. That was one old woman not to be messed with! I loved the costume designs for the creatures, which also brought some fairly decent gore as well! Unfortunately the gore was few and far between and for a film of this nature, it was a little disappointing to see that the bloodbath that was on offer, wasn't as bloody as it could and should have been. The ending is fairly straight forward, which concludes a fairly straight forward film. If you are a French Horror fanatic, such as myself, this one will interest you. If you are just a casual viewer, this movie isn't something you haven't seen all before.

'tough girl' Charlotte is also a bit of a daft twit, who doesn't mind picking up hitchhikers, even falling asleep while allowing him to drive, snoop in her belongings, and take her to an out of the way backwoods diner. When he disappears into the restroom of said diner and never returns, she's hellbent on finding this complete stranger. And that's far from the last mind-blowingly stupid decision she makes. Furthermore, while it was nice to see French horror mainstay, Philippe Nahon playing a local policeman in the movie, it only served to remind me of other more quality horror films. Ones that this movie can't help but fail in comparison to. The creatures are visually striking but that's pretty much it.

Rule number I forget in horror: Don't leave someone behind when they've "disappeared". It will come back to haunt you, or the people responsible for his "disappearance" will get you. That's what happens in the French horror film "The Pack."

Charlotte (Emilie Dequenne) picks up a hitchhiker named Max (Benjamin Biolay) and they go to a local truck-stop diner. They running into a gang of degenerate bikers (is there any other kind in movies?), only to have said bikers get scared off by the owner of the restaurant La Spack (Jean-Pierre Jeunet regular Yolande Moreau.) When Max doesn't return after a trip to the bathroom, Charlotte finds herself in the clutches of Spack, who turns out to be Max's mother-and who feeds people to ground dwelling, humanoid flesh eaters.

I won't deny that for what it is, "The Pack" manages to be fun albeit unspectacular. It's got a nasty and welcome streak of black humor that doesn't go overboard into a horror/comedy route, which is kind of refreshing. It's also capably directed, has some good performances (especially from Moreau, who seems to be having a blast as the villain), some decent atmosphere, and some choice gore. Also, Phillipe Nahon shows up wearing a shirt you've probably seen online that says "I F#ck on the First Date", which automatically bumps this up half a star.

However, as I said, the end result feels kind of unspectacular. That's mostly because of the fact that most of this is either predictable or familiar, and none of it is particularly suspenseful or scary. You know from the get go that La Spack is up to no good, what with her threatening the bikers with a gun and coming off as loony. We also get the requisite nods to other, better horror movies, including a near end siege straight of of "Night of the Living Dead" (or if you want to be obscure, Robert Voskanian's sole directorial effort "The Child"), and yet more references to the likes of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." That reminds me: do we really need another visual tribute to the door slamming from that movie?

As it is, "The Pack" is far from a classic, and not in the higher tier of the recent wave of French horror. However, it's disposable, mostly unoffensive fun that's not spectacular but does a good enough job, and would make a fun triple bill with "The Horde" and "Frontier(s)."

In the middle of a snowy no man's land, Charlotte Massot (Emilie Dequenne) picks up Max (Benjamin Biolay), a hitchhiker; they stop in a truck-stop restaurant... hilarity ensues.

Trying to define this movie, or even give it a coherent plot, is a bit of a challenge. There are definitely elements of "Saw" or "Hostel" with the torture sequences. But that is not the focus. There are zombies (or something like zombies), but it is not a zombie film. And there are outlaws that conjure up images of "Mad Max", but it is not really like that either. Does this film fit into a category? No. Which, I suppose, is both a compliment and a complaint.

I will say that the film was beautifully shot and the special effects far exceed the low budget American films that come out these days. I am not aware what the budget of this film was, but I am willing to bet it was not nearly the amount it appears to be. The cinematographer and special effects crew deserve every bit of praise heaped on them.