Sick Product of a Sick System

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely Fantastic

Frontier(s) is a very interesting movie, in a good way and in a bad way. Xavier Gens does not shy away from gore but he also favors symbolism and some very dramatic shots. It's clear that he's torn between these styles as sometimes the scenes seem to be shot by completely different people. Both are fantastic on their own, but together there's a strange mix. There's a shot with the main character getting her hair cut that is beautiful and clear. Just a few minutes before there was gritty, hand-held, night-vision camera action. I think he was pressured to make this into more of a classic horror (Wrong Turn). All in all, it's worth a watch. It's very good actually, I really hope that he gets some focus and a bit more freedom because I think this movie could have been fantastic. He directed perhaps the best segment in the ABC's of death, definitely the most memorable and symbolic (XXL). He has some fantastic shots in this movie, and the actors were way above average for a horror film, specifically Karina Testa and Maud Farget. I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoy's horror movies really, and for people who want to see something different.

This movie was teetering on the edge of me hitting stop and walking away. There were just too many flaws with this.OK, first let me give a rundown of the plot. Set in France, some hoodlums committed a robbery and were trying to escape to Holland. Their plan was to meet at a certain rendezvous point to split their loot and do whatever else. It was at this rendezvouz point that bleep starts happening.No one, and I mean no one in this movie was a decent human being. The killers and the killed were all morally bankrupt. But alas, we definitely rank robbery above maiming and killing.This movie had way too much screaming. I'd say half the lines of the men and the women were "Aaaaaah". The main character screamed so much that I'd have to think she couldn't talk for days after each shoot. I think Godzilla is more intelligible.And I thought that megalomania was dead? How do you ensure a character has a second chance at life, or a legitimate shot to win a battle... have a killer who is a megalomaniac. Or, not even a megalomaniac, just one who loves to revel in the moment instead of just killing his/her avowed enemy.This movie definitely delivers on the stomach turning, but the bottom line is that there were too many cliché's in this movie. It was good for gore and shock and awe, but terrible for originality and otherwise distinguishing itself as a horror movie.

One of a new wave of ultra-explicit French horror/thrillers, FRONTIERS is everything a gore-drenched thriller should be. Set in the near future, it sees the usual bunch of unsuspecting victims holing up in a remote hotel, where they find themselves at the mercy of a hillbilly family who make the Texas Chainsaw clan look like the Brady Bunch. What follows is an odyssey of bloody murder, torture and revenge, expertly directed by Xavier Gans.I'm not really a fan of gore films per se. A lot of the horror films I love were made by Universal and Hammer, and of course these are considered tame by modern standards. But I don't mind gore when it's done right, as in the likes of HOSTEL, and it's certainly done right here too. We see brutal violence and punishment meted out to innocent victims before the tables are finally turned and the bad guys get their comeuppance, and that's just the kind of bloodshed I love watching. The film can hardly be applauded for originality but it certainly makes up for it in execution.This is a taut, tense and extremely gruelling affair which barely lets you catch your breath from beginning to end. Gans' direction is adroit and the spare script allows the story to be told mostly through action rather than needless dialogue. The performances are decent for what is clearly a low budget film, and the special effects are, of course, grisly and spectacular, especially that saw scene. FRONTIERS is a film for movie-goers who like their horror full-blooded and gritty and it beats any Saw movie hands down.

Trying to escape a local revolution, a group of thieves escape the city and arrive at a secluded motel in the countryside to regroup, only to stumble upon the sinister truth about the owners there and try to get out of the area alive.Overall, this was a very interesting if flawed effort as there's some great stuff here and some really troubling stuff. The troubling stuff isn't all that damaging yet features prominently in the film, mainly the fact that the film's several big action scenes are edited with the ultra-annoying and jarring quick-cut editing that renders the whole scene nearly impossible to make out, as if it had a chance with all the camera-jerking and shaking going on. This one, then, features both tactics during these scenes, and they're the big action chases so those are supposed to be the sequences you want to see, so it knocks itself down a bit for that. However, the rest of the film is highly entertaining and utterly enjoyable starting off with the introduction of the Nazi family which is pretty chilling given the relationship with the group, and their series of chases and confrontations are quite fun. As a bloodbath, it's got a lot to like as this one really lets it flow numerous times with it's graphic depictions of bodies getting torn open, dismemberments, decapitations and more, which are pretty realistic at times and generate a lot of fun. As well, there's some nice suspense at times included within, with one stand-out sequence where several victims crawl through an increasingly narrower tunnel guided only by a cigarette lighter and see they're being chased through by something or someone, and they're mixed nicely with the dirty, depraved goings-on to create a rather fun entry that happily stands among the good new French splatter-fests.Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and a clothed sex scene.