Amidst a city wide riot, a small band of thieves - led by the pregnant Yasmine (Karina Testa) and her boyfriend Alex (Aurelien Wiik) - must get out of the city and head across the border to evade capture. They split up into two groups, one being Alex and Yasmine, the other being Farid (Chems Dahmani) and Tom (David Saracino), with the latter deciding to wait for their companions at a small motel a few miles from the border. Upon arrival they are offered nothing but sex and booze from the two bartenders, which they accept with little convincing from the two ladies. Things quickly take a turn for the worst however, as their hospitable hosts, led by the massive Goetz (Samuel Le Bihan) violently attack them after their meal. Shortly afterwards, Alex and Yasmine arrive at the motel where they're told their friends went to another motel because there aren't any available rooms. Considering there are no cars outside, they are understandably confused, but accept a ride from the motel employees to what they assume is the other motel. They couldn't be more wrong. What follows is a gruesome journey full of torture, blood, and oddly enough a few good laughs.

When it comes to brutal, in-your-face, survival horror films, it seems that the French have the market cornered. When Haute Tension came out a few years back, it took horror fans by surprise at just how visceral and dark it was. I can speak for more than just myself when I say it lived up to my expectations, and greatly surpassed them. The same can be said for this film, which completely blew me away. While being a mix-up of several different genres, as well as paying homage to some of the classics as well as some newer films, Hostel and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre being a large influence, this movie is a survival flick, plain and simple.

Karina Testa ranks up there as one of the best leading ladies I've seen in some time. The horrific experience she goes through changes her character drastically, and the way she develops her character then completely changes for the third act of the film was fantastic. Another standout performance was carried out by Samuel Le Bihan, who some of you may recognize from The Brotherhood of the Wolf. He barely had to say a word, as his presence alone was enough to chill you to the bone. His role as the soldier for the family was probably the most important, even though I'm not very familiar with his body of work, after seeing him in this, I couldn't think of another person who could pull the role off as well with so little dialogue, and what did exist was made up of a lot of growls and roars.

This movie is mostly being hailed for the gore and gross-out factor. I would have to disagree with this, as there isn't a whole lot of gore to be found. Maybe it's because I've grown immune to this sort of thing, but there were very few "gross-out" moments, and the gore was used only for realism and to keep the pace of the story. That is to say, after a certain point, there had to be a certain amount of killings and gore, otherwise there would be no movie. I'm not one for spoilers, but there is a scene in particular where one of the young thieves, the one I was hoping made it, no less, is boiled alive inside a small chamber. The progression of this scene was great, and when the door finally opened up and he spilled across the floor, I loved how gooey and truly disgusting he looked.

Even after all this praise, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't tackle the obvious problem with this movie. A group of young adults stumbles across a kind of backwoods family, insults them, then are tortured and butchered. Not exactly the freshest storyline ever created. For anyone who's seen Blood Feast, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wrong Turn, Hostel or a dozen others, you know exactly who will live, who will die, and what to expect more or less. So essentially, it is up to the actors, the special effects, and the camera work to pull this movie off. Why would anyone pick this off the shelf over such classics as Blood Feast and TCM? Because of the actors, special effects and camera work. Xavier Gens is a newcomer, but he has certainly cut his teeth with this picture. I can only hope that he strays away from the Hollywood scene - honestly, who thinks Hitman looks good? - and starts making more movies like this. I will watch each and everyone of them.

10/10

REVIEW:
Thank god for France. Thank god. I've watched so many awful horror movies these last couple of days and it's nice to finally get to see something great. There's been a lot of controversy around this film, the movie was rated NC-17 and got pulled from the Horrorfest schedule, it had rating issues in France, and it's sure to be banned in several countries. So is it as brutal, violent and gory as people make it out to be? Well, it is brutal, violent and gory, that's for sure but it didn't shock me like Haute Tension did. The characters weren't very likeable, the emotions didn't really work and it seemed to try just a bit too hard to be disturbing.

Frontiers isn't anything new really. It's a mash-up of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostel, Saw, Haute Tension and even The Descent but these are all great films and Frontiers manages to merge the best elements from these films together quite well. The story revolves around four criminals who are running around the streets of Paris with a big bag of money during the riots caused by a political election. With the cops trying to hunt them down, they decide to seek shelter in a small, rather filthy, bed and breakfast. What they don't know is that the family running the B&B is a bit deranged. In fact, they're neo-Nazis - and not very nice ones. Gore and blood splatters everywhere as the teens struggle to stay alive through the night.

This movie is divided into three parts; the first one being the friends trying to escape from the cops, the second one being the friends getting tortured and killed and the third one being when one of the friends is forced to join the family. The first two parts aren't really anything out of the ordinary, it's when the movie kicks into third gear that things start getting interesting. This is where the movie really kicks off and it does so with a bang. From start to finish this movie really is all about the action and the gore though and it's all done with such class that it doesn't feel cheap. In fact, the end scene is out of this world - it's extremely beautiful (in a weird kind of way). I don't think I have to tell you that I really enjoyed this film - but I'm sure many of you won't. If you're a fan of Inside and Haute Tension, you'll most definitely get a kick out of Frontiers.

France really is the new country for horror flicks. They know what works and they know how to create a good atmosphere and really draw the audience in. This may not be a mainstream horror flick but it is insanely gory and simply outstanding. For once, here's a movie that actually lives up to its hype. If you're a hardcore horror fan, this is definitely not to be missed. It's got gore, action, good pacing and a whole lot more. One of the best movies of the year.

GORE:
I'm not even going to get into this part. It's insanely gory, that's all I'm going to say.

SOUNDTRACK:
Tight and fast-paced, just like the movie. Good stuff.

BOTTOM LINE:
Frontiers isn't the most original horror film that I've seen but it's still one of the best horror flicks of the year. It's brutal and gory and has a tight and solid story. This movie was simply outstanding in terms of freaking its audience out. A must-have in your collection.