Directors
Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo first made an impression a
few years ago with Inside, one of a handful of
uncompromisingly brutal horror films that placed France at the
forefront of the genre’s more extreme side. Their latest
film, Livid, would seem to be a return to a less
visceral, more traditional horror – though the film is far
from predictable.
The film opens with Lucie (Chloé Coullard) starting her
first day as a home visitor and carer, joining the older and rather
cynical Mrs Wilson (Catherine Jacob) on her rounds dealing with
her old and senile patients. The final visit is to a large, crumbling
house where the ancient Mrs Jessel lies in a coma, kept alive
by the blood transfusions that her wealth affords her. When Mrs
Wilson mentions that there is supposed to be a treasure hidden
in the house, Lucie starts to pay attention, and when she relays
this information to her boyfriend William (Felix Moati) and his
brother Ben (Jeremy Kapone), it doesn’t take much for the
pair to convince her to help them break into the house and find
the hidden fortune. So, on Halloween, the trio set off and enter
the house through a broken window, only to fin that there are
forces beyond their imagination at work within the old building,
which rapidly becomes a maze that they are unable to escape.
So far Livid plays like a traditional ghost story.
We’ve been told that Mrs Jessel had a mute daughter who
died mysteriously, and so we are set up for our three protagonists
to fall victim to a vengeful spirit. But instead, Maury and Bustillo
take our genre expectations and play with them, taking the film
from ghost story to gory vampire shocker and winding up with a
dark, haunting fairy tale that is eerily moving.
Livid
drips with atmosphere – the house has a seemingly endless
series of rooms, each with their own sense of creepiness. Those
of you with a phobia for stuffed animals will be particularly
freaked out by this film, as will anyone with a fear of ghostly
children, and the film’s strange, off-key atmosphere and
continual wrong-footing of the audience ensure that this is a
very effective dark fantasy. Inside fans will be gratified to
know that while the gore is less frequent here, it’s no
less intense and graphic – and feels more shocking as it
appears out of nowhere. One scene of someone being hacked to death
by ghostly children is particularly savage and disturbing. That
the film can move from such brutality to moments of haunting,
emotive beauty is pretty admirable.
With fan-pleasing nods to An American Werewolf in London
and – more significantly, given the clear influence here
– Suspiria, strong performances from the
cast (which includes Beatrice Dalle in a cameo) and continual
twisting of genre conventions, Livid is an impressively
dark tale of revenge and redemption. Very much worth checking
out.
Directors
Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo first made an impression a
few years ago with Inside, one of a handful of
uncompromisingly brutal horror films that placed France at the
forefront of the genre’s more extreme side. Their latest
film, Livid, would seem to be a return to a less
visceral, more traditional horror – though the film is far
from predictable.
Livid
drips with atmosphere – the house has a seemingly endless
series of rooms, each with their own sense of creepiness. Those
of you with a phobia for stuffed animals will be particularly
freaked out by this film, as will anyone with a fear of ghostly
children, and the film’s strange, off-key atmosphere and
continual wrong-footing of the audience ensure that this is a
very effective dark fantasy. Inside fans will be gratified to
know that while the gore is less frequent here, it’s no
less intense and graphic – and feels more shocking as it
appears out of nowhere. One scene of someone being hacked to death
by ghostly children is particularly savage and disturbing. That
the film can move from such brutality to moments of haunting,
emotive beauty is pretty admirable. 
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