Just perfect...

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I was really pumped to see this one and when I began watching it I realized it was not going so well...The characters may seem good at first, but they get boring and annoying after 10 minutes. Story was so slow that you forget what's the movie about. Characters do some stupid stuff that makes almost no sense sometimes. Atmosphere is not that great, it really gives you some promise, but the characters ruin it. Maybe too much light also. Movie is not bad BAD movie but to me it was not enjoyable at all. I usually love French movies, but this one was boring, at least to me! I'm not saying not to check it out cause you might like it but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought i would.

From my not too wide experience with French Horror films (basically Martyrs and The Inside) I've learnt that they could be quite sick. Malefique isn't so much sick as it is disturbing and slightly depressing. It's not your ordinary everyday Horror film, but it does have it's Horror-like disturbing moments and aspects of the story. It's also the first Horror film I've ever seen that takes place in a prison.I can't say much about the screenplay and script as I don't speak the language, but the story was pretty average and all that original. Some prisoners find an old journal that used to belong to another prisoner, and deals with occult black magick. The audience is told the tale of their everyday routine as cons, then the changes it and they undergo upon finding the book and attempting to decipher it. The cinematography is also quite ordinary, with few scenes shot as seen from a video camera, like in a found-footage/mockumentary film. The impressive bit is that the entire film takes place almost solely in a prison cell (except for two short scenes, one in the visiting room and one at the prison office), so it's basically single location. I always like seeing how directors face the single location challenge, and in this case Eric Valette has done well.As probably said before, what really makes this film is the characters, who are bizarre to the point of being fantastic and unrealistic at the same time as being as realistic and compelling as they come. Protagonist/Antagonist Carrère (Gérald Laroche) used to run a company and it's implied that he "took some shortcuts", probably financial ones. He's almost obsessed with being bailed out so he could be with his son. There's Marcus (Clovis Cornillac), a brute force character who likes to use his strength to get what he wants. He's also a very masculine drag- queen with breasts, make-up and everything that is obsessed with working out and keeping fit so he could escape by climbing the prison wall with 50 kg on his back. The 50 kg refer to Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud), a funny demented retard who behaves like a hyperactive 5 year old, Marcus's protégé and my favorite character, excellent acting performance by Rataud. And then there's Lassalle (Philippe Laudenbach), a seemingly harmless elderly fellow, not quite obvious if very smart or insane, or both. The dynamics between the characters, who share the cell, is what keeps the film going and the audience enthralled to the screen.All in all, the story, ending and small plot-twist are good, but not excellent. There's never a dull moment, but it's not the story that makes this film worthy, nor even the acting. It's, as mentioned, the characters and their dynamics. I'd highly recommend this film to anyone who's had their share of Horror films and wouldn't mind seeing something a little different, a little new, and while not a masterpiece - very impressive in my opinion!

Malefique pretty much has the viewer from start to finish with its edgy atmosphere. Nearly the whole movie is set in a prison cell revolving around 4 characters of which transvestite Marcus and his little retarded boy are way out the strangest. Soon the inmates find a diary of a previous inmate behind a brick which deals with his obsession of occult and black magic themes leading to his escape from the cell. From here on everything deals with uncovering the secret of the book and its spells to flee from prison. That leads to some accidents on the way out of the cell into the unknown light.Honestly I think the story is rather poor and the final twist is nice but to me the ends are pretty loosely tied together. Anyway I was thrilled until the last moment because the atmosphere of the movie is unique with minimal setting and cast. The kills are raw and eerie... its doesn't take gore to chill your spine and the occult themes are also done very well and reminded me of the hell themes in Hellraiser. Malefique has a claustrophobic and cold dirty feel with greenish tint. At times you wonder if the real or the occult world depicted here is stranger... when the retarded boy looses his fingers and is lulled to sleep sucking on Marcus breasts it seems normal, so how strange can glowing gates to freedom be? With its budget the movie creates a unique atmosphere and chills the viewer in a very different way than most of the genre shockers do. I just wish the story had led to a more consistent finale. Several elements like the visitor with the camera, the other inmates obsession with books and the toy doll vaguely pointing to the end don't fit tight in the story. Anyway, I'll keep my eyes open for other movies from director Valette, although its a turn-off to see he's is doing a Hollywood remake of "One missed call" which was worn off and useless already in the Miike-version.

I was hooked from beginning to end. Great horror comes from disturbing imagery and organic shocks that are created not to make you jump, but to make you go "What the f*ck did I just see?" All the other commentators gave short summaries of what the film is about, so I won't rehash what has already been said. I was telling other people about this movie days after I had seen it just because it still haunted me. I even had a bad dream after seeing it, and I am a true horror fan, not easily spooked by tripe like "The Grudge" or even "Silent Hill". What gave me the bad dreams was the unease I felt about what I would do if I were in that cell with those guys. What would my personal horror be? my subconscious took me there, and it was not pleasant. That my friends is what a good horror flick does to you! The best part of this movie is that it is subtle. It's not about Bogeymen that jump out at you,alien invasions, or tons of gore. It's the opposite. The horror you create in your own mind. The irony for the four characters is that the horror comes not from an external force that asserts it's power over them. Simply, the men ask for the one thing they desire, and they get it...but not in the way they imagined. So on the one hand, they get what they wish for from an occult book, but may ultimately wish they hadn't. Sometimes being locked in a jail cell is the best place to be!