Such a frustrating disappointment

Simply Perfect

Boring

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Four men want to bust out of jail – with the help of a little black magic.French horrors have been quite riveting the fast five or so years. Although this movie may not fit in with the disturbing MARTYRS and INSIDE, this fantasy delivers a quality story with a wonderful group of eclectic characters.Alexandre Charlot and Franck Magnier bring together a tight script with idiosyncratic characters to keep the audience on their toes. Stylishly directed by Eric Valett, with exceptional cinematography by Jean-Marc Bouzou (who makes us all feel like we're the fifth prisoner), we are taken on an intriguing ride. And it's such a great trip we forget that the movie is four talking heads in a French jail cell.This fast-paced mystery is sure to attract more fans around the globe with its ensnaring tone, excellent dialogue and stellar cast.

I really don't have any clue why this feature got so many positive reviews and is even considered as a cult movie by some. There are many great fantasy and horror movies coming from such as "Vertige", "Proie", "Vidocq" and many more but this movie simply can't catch up with these movies.The movie kicks off quite slow and introduces some more or less interesting characters that share a cell in an ugly French prison. First of all, it is quite exaggerated to show this kind of prison as the French prisons are surely not used to be this disgusting. That's where we have the first little goof.Four prisoners share this cell. The businessman Carrère that got in prison because of a fraud. He is played by Gérald Larouche who simply gives a bad interpretation of the character that seems quite faceless and stupid. He wants to break free from prison to pick up his son from his wife that is asking for a divorce. This idea is just stupid as everybody knows that he would never be able to see his son again if he breaks out from prison and break into the house of his wife. The emotions of the man that suffers from the divorce and the separation from his son are not at all played in a realistic manner and slows down the movie and makes me lose interest from the beginning on.The second prisoner is the intellectual Lassalle who worked in a library. One morning, he decided to randomly kill his wife. This character is just strange. First, he doesn't want to read the strange book that they find and then suddenly he wants to. He seems to dominate the angry Marcus in the beginning but later gets abused by the same without saying a word. At least, this character portrayed by Philippe Laudenbach is intriguing but he doesn't act in any normal manner.Prisoner number three is the drag Marcus portrayed by the famous Clovis Cornillac who does a fairly good job here. We don't get to know much about him and his character isn't so well developed. We don't know why he is so attached to the retarded cell inmate Pâquerette or what crime he committed. The character seems interesting but isn't developed as profound as it should have been.The last prisoner is the retarded Pâquerette portrayed by Dimitri Rataud. This character is well played. He is a retard that ate his own sister. But it's not logical at all that this guy is in a normal prison with three inmates. That doesn't make any sense, especially as Marcus cuts off the fingers of Pâquerette. The reason why he does it isn't quite clear to me, too. Anyway, a fragile character that gets butchered like this can't stay in a prison cell with three other inmates. He would be a danger for himself and the others and would need permanent surveillance. Once again, this is a point where the movie doesn't make much sense.After so many strange characters that act in very senseless and unusual ways, the thin plot consists of finding an old book behind a brick inside the cell. Once again, this doesn't make any sense. First of all, modern prisons don't have this kind of bricks. Second, these prisons are inspected in detail by guards and other staff and they would have found the book without a doubt. Third, the book was caught in the walls probably eighty years ago and it's quite impossible that the prison didn't get renovated as time went by and the book stayed at the same place all the time. Once again, this doesn't make any sense.The four characters find out that the book deals with black magic and the instantly believe in this and even if the first tries go horribly wrong, they are sure to be able to escape from prison with some of the formulae written in the book. It's really difficult to believe that the characters are that dumb and superficial.I don't want to tell a punch but one of the guys dies during one of the first experiments with black magic. Instead of investigating, the prison guards believe the thin story that the guy fell from his bed and died and don't harm the other three prisoners. Seriously, once again, this is a horrible goof and doesn't make any sense at all.In the end, each prisoner gets butchered and dies a horrible death instead of getting out of prison. There is some senseless violence and gratuitous gore for nothing and the movie ends with a surprising twist but with a rather stupid ending.In the end, as you can see, there is not much positive or special to be told about this movie. The characters are mostly bad, the story is not credible and quite stupid and the movie has many goofs. I give a few points for Cornillac and Rataud, a few good special effects and the interesting apparition of the mysterious character Hippolyte Picus in the last third of the movie.On the other side, don't believe the positive hype around this movie. It's true that there are many amazing French horror and fantasy movies but this one is one of the worst I have seen in my life. Don't buy this flick and don't even rent it even if the description of the story seems intriguing. Go for "Le Pacte Des Loups", "Eden Log", "Proie" or any other French horror or fantasy movie of your choice instead.

French horror cinema has seen something of a revival over the last couple of years with great films such as Inside and Switchblade Romance bursting on to the scene. Maléfique preceded the revival just slightly, but stands head and shoulders over most modern horror titles and is surely one of the best French horror films ever made! Maléfique was obviously shot on a low budget, but this is made up for in far more ways than one by the originality of the film, and this in turn is complimented by the excellent writing and acting that ensure the film is a winner. The plot focuses on two main ideas; prison and black magic. The central character is a man named Carrère, sent to prison for fraud. He is put in a cell with three others; the quietly insane Lassalle, body building transvestite Marcus and his retarded boyfriend Daisy. After a short while in the cell together, they stumble upon a hiding place in the wall that contains an old journal. After translating part of it, they soon realise its magical powers and realise they may be able to use it to break through the prison walls.Black Magic is a very interesting topic, and I'm actually quite surprised that there aren't more films based on it as there's so much scope for things to do with it. It's fair to say that Maléfique makes the best of it's assets as despite it's restraints, the film never actually feels restrained and manages to flow well throughout. Director Eric Valette provides a great atmosphere for the film; the fact that most of it takes place inside the central prison cell ensures that the film feels very claustrophobic, and this immensely benefits the central idea of the prisoners wanting to use magic to break out of the cell - it's very easy to get behind them! It's often said that the unknown is the thing that really frightens people, and this film proves that as the director ensures that we can never really be sure of exactly what is round the corner, and this helps to ensure that Maléfique actually does manage to be quite frightening! The film is memorable for a lot of reasons outside the central plot; the characters are all very interesting in their own way and the fact that the book itself almost takes on its own character is very well done. Anyone worried that the film won't deliver by the end won't be disappointed either as the ending both makes sense and manages to be quite horrifying! Overall, Maléfique is a truly great horror film and one of the best of the decade - HIGHLY recommended viewing!

Good horror movies from France are quite rare, and it's fairly easy to see why! Whenever a talented young filmmaker releases a staggering new film, he emigrates towards glorious Hollywood immediately after to directed the big-budgeted remake of another great film classic! How can France possibly build up a solid horror reputation when their prodigy-directors leave the country after just one film? "Haute Tension" was a fantastic movie and it earned director Alexandre Aja a (one-way?) ticket to the States to remake "The Hills Have Eyes" (which he did terrifically, I may add). Eric Valette's long-feature debut "Maléfique" was a very promising and engaging horror picture too, and he's already off to the Hollywood as well to direct the remake of Takashi Miike's ghost-story hit "One Missed Call". So there you have it, two very gifted Frenchmen that aren't likely to make any more film in their native country some time soon. "Maléfique" is a simple but efficient chiller that requires some patience due to its slow start, but once the plot properly develops, it offers great atmospheric tension and a handful of marvelous special effects. The film almost entirely takes place in one single location and only introduces four characters. We're inside a ramshackle French prison cell with four occupants. The new arrival is a businessman sentenced to do time for fraud, the elderly and "wise" inmate sadistically killed his wife and then there's a crazy transvestite and a mentally handicapped boy to complete the odd foursome. They find an ancient journal inside the wall of their cell, belonging to a sick murderer in the 1920's who specialized in black magic rites and supernatural ways to escape. The four inmates begin to prepare their own escaping plan using the bizarre formulas of the book, only to realize the occult is something you shouldn't mess with… Eric Valette dedicates oceans of time to the character drawings of the four protagonists, which occasionally results in redundant and tedious sub plots, but his reasons for this all become clear in the gruesome climax when the book suddenly turns out to be some type of Wishmaster-device. "Maléfique" is a dark film, with truckloads of claustrophobic tension and several twisted details about human behavior. Watch it before some wealthy American production company decides to remake it with four handsome teenage actors in the unconvincing roles of hardcore criminals.