BLACK HEAVEN

A couple of movies hinging on the concept of the internet made their debuts at the 63rd Cannes Film festival last year. One was the better known and glorified picture "CHATROOM" by Hideo Nakata. Founded on similar ground, but far more character based, is Gilles Marchand’s French psychological thriller, originally titled L'autre Monde (The Other World). The movie has been given the title BLACK HEAVEN for its presentation on DVD in the UK.

Young lovers Gaspard (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) and his girlfriend Marion (Pauline Etiene) come across a lost mobile phone while on their summer holidays. Their mischievous teenage curiosity lures them into sifting through the phone’s contents. Discovering a few intriguing texts entice the young couple into covertly gate crashing a planned meeting between a 20-something male calling himself Dragon, and the phone’s owner, an alluring blonde woman calling herself Sam.

They indeed spy on the mysterious encounter at a quiet chapel and proceed to follow Sam and Dragon. When their proletarian pursuit culminates in interrupting an apparent suicide pact between the two, they discover Sam unconscious but Dragon lifeless. The DV camera that Gaspard stupidly pilfers from the scene was ultimately used to record the mutual exodus from this Earthly existence, but also intriguingly contains conversations between Sam and Dragon about a place called the ‘Black Beach’.

Rather fortuitously, and unknowing to Marion, Gaspard then crosses paths with the fascinating flaxen lady Sam when reluctantly assisting a friend score some marijuana at a seedy apartment. Sam, who reveals her real name to be Audrey, seductively entices Gaspard into a conversation after he makes reference to the fact he saved her life. She divulges the Black Beach is a place featured on a virtual-world online computer game called Black Hole. Although warned off Audrey by her thuggish brother, Gaspard is seemingly enthralled by her enigma. He slowly becomes immersed in the Black Hole gaming experience in an attempt to understand what would prompt a suicide pact as well as gratify his own obsession with the peculiar stranger.

But when the segregation of real and virtual worlds blur, will Gaspards life ever be the same again...?

Black Heaven offers a definite change of mood from the extremities of modern French horror. For a start, the movie is bereft of gore apart from a brief dream sequence, but this is not a bad thing in the context of Marchand’s picture. Although spicing BH up with a few lashings of crimson colored ultra violence would have widened its audience, it would paradoxically have lessened the movies impact.

The cinematography looks solid in its 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio even if it does lack the unique Gallic panache that horror fans have become accustomed to when watching macabre offerings emanating from across the Channel.

Some slick animation is shrewdly employed for the online gaming scenes and I felt just the right measure of digital simulation was utilized to evolve the narrative. But it is the Black Hole game concept that my first criticism is levelled: we are led to believe the online game is a mainstream pastime. So much so it can be purchased from high street stores. Considering the thousands of folk who would inevitably engage in such entertainment, the ease in which Gaspard’s avatar alter ego discovered Sam/Audrey amidst the vast digital setting did seem a little implausible.

Predictably, the concept of online deception plays a big part in the plot. But more interestingly is the notion of internet addiction and how it can impact on someone’s life as much as any other compulsion can. The murky terrain of the human desire to oppress and exploit others for their own selfish ends is also obliquely referred to with Audrey’s involvement in proceedings. A hypnotic performance from Louise Bourgoin helps galvanise all that is good about this curiously dark tale.

The leisurely pace may not sit well with some but it does serve the movie well, especially considering what a character driven vehicle it is. All the characters are justified exemplified by Marion’s over protective father. His credible role, although being largely peripheral in the 97 minute runtime, does help mould his daughter’s personality.

Although Black Heaven lacked the venomous bite that would have elevated it from an intriguing tale into a classic modern horror film, the subjects touched upon are absorbing enough make this a very watchable piece of cinema.

Review by Marc Lissenburg