THE PACK

I have always found the world of French Horror films highly entertaining. Whether it is the surrealism of Jean Rollin’s vampire yarns or the gritty brutality of modern French Extreme cinema, Horror from France usually has something unique to offer. Well folks, there is a new garcon on le block in the form of writer –director Franck Richard. With such lofty standards to adhere to, how did his debut, THE PACK, fair?

Charlotte Massey (Emilie Dequenne) is midway through a solitary road trip of sorts. Where she is heading is unclear. She is merely following the line of CD’s on her dashboard – when the music stops, so does she. Or at least that is what she tells to a seemingly innocent hitchhiker Max (is there any such thing?) that she picks up on a country road. After structuring his expectations somewhat, ("If you get your cock out I will break your jaw") they wind up at a ramshackle old café called La Spack. Named after it’s hefty, middle aged female owner (played by multi award winning Belgium actress Yolande Moreau), the deserted diner seems the perfect place for the odd couple to get to know each other a little better. However, Max and Charlottes rest stop soon turns sour though when a biker gang, who had a brief run in with Ms Massey earlier, enter and start to wreak havoc. The couple are both threatened with sexual violence before the butch proprietor, uses her shotgun to ward off the lunatics. But this is only temporary relief from the mayhem.

When Charlotte is not convinced that an absent Max has simply done a runner, she returns later to La Spack to investigate. It proves a poor move when she is attacked and knocked unconscious. She awakes in a steel cage to a hideous scenario. It seems La Spack’s diner caters for some truly gruesome tastes….

THE PACK is a movie that lull’s you into familiar territory before unleashing its delightfully hideous plot. Just as you fear an interesting movie may descend into another Texas Chainsaw Massacre clone, a welcome abominable change of direction ensures your eyes stay glued to the screen till the final frame! Without revealing too much, let’s just say that tales of blood thirty fiends crawling out from the undergrowth have been screaming out for an injection of originality for a few years now. Trust those good folk across the channel to finally satisfy that craving with La Meute.

The movie is shot superbly. The desolation of the rustic French outback is depicted beautifully. This not only sets an unmistakable rural atmosphere, it also makes the rich gore sequences all the more effective, whether they be day or night.

The quality cast are also hugely watchable. Not mentioned in the brief synopsis above is the appearance of veteran French actor Phillippe Nahon, from ‘Switchblade Romance’ and ‘Irreversible’ notoriety. He contributes a subtle dose of humour to proceedings, especially with his not so subtle t-shirt slogan. (Yes the slogan is in English... No I am not going to tell you what it says!)

The movie does have a couple of flaws unfortunately. Firstly the biker gang were a little too clichéd at times (The ring leader is called Bazooka Joe for instance.) Also, Charlotte’s character proves to be a tough lil croissant when she stands up to them, which makes it a tad unbelievable that she would so easily trust Max so quickly after picking him up. Such a street wise heroine surely wouldn’t fall asleep when an apparent stranger drives her vehicle. It almost made me wonder whether he was an old friend but as the movie developed it was obvious he was a stranger. Apart from that minor lapse the film is top notch.

A final point must be made about the packaging. The macabre DVD cover has been created by acclaimed British poster artist Graham Humphreys. You may not be familiar with the immensely talented Humphreys, but I am pretty certain you would recognise his work. He has previously produced artwork for ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise and more recently Rob Zombies ‘House of 1000 Corpses’. His unique ability to capture the essence of the movie through his drawing is exemplified with The Pack’s front cover.

Indeed there is even a miniscule extra on the disc which races us through the process Graham used in which to produce the cover artwork. With the demon of ‘bit torrents’ and ‘file sharing’ threatening future film production, packaging like this really adds to the collectability of genuine DVD’s.

All in all a first-rate movie that will look as good on your shelf as it will on your TV!

Review by Marc Lissenburg