POLTERGAY

The pre-credits prologue invites us in to a gay nightclub in the 1970s, where revellers are dancing in their flares and Afros to disco music. The glitter balls shimmer and the foam machine starts to fill the dancefloor with bubbles. Unfortunately a technical fault causes the foam machine to overload and it blows up, taking five dancers with it.

Thirty years later, and the property is bought by a pair of young lovers, Mark (Clovis Cornillac) and Emma (Julie Depardieu - yes, daughter of Gerard). The couple are excited about their dilapidated new home, even if their enthusiasm isn't shared by their visiting friend David (Alain Fromager) or Mark's cat … who prefers to snarl whenever he sees the house.

But in the couple move, with David staying late into the night to share some quality boys' time with Mark. This involves a few games of pool, a couple of beers and smoking a spliff. Mark, you see, is very much a man's man. Or so he thinks …

That night, Mark is woken in bed by music. He wakes Emma but she can't really hear it, and she needs to be up early the following morning to go to work on a dig in Pompeii.

The following morning Mark goes to work on a nearby construction site (see how macho he is? Oh, he's Italian too - we all know what they're reputation with the ladies is like?!) before returning home to an empty house. He showers, only to be find a Polaroid camera outside the bathroom, which has just taken a photograph of his bare backside.

Investigating further, Mark discovers a huge penis chalked on his pool table. Later that evening, he discovers one painted on a wall in the house. Unfortunately by the time the police have arrived, Mark's already painted over the offending scribble and has little evidence of the vandalism he wishes to report. The only thing he can highlight to the cops is the pair of jeans hanging in his wardrobe, that someone appears to have ironed a crease into the middle of …

With just one more evening to cope with alone in the house until Emma returns, Mark tries to sleep through the distant music that night. When Emma arrives home early in the night, he is extremely relieved and the pair begin to make love. But by this point Mark has become so distracted with the mysterious occurrences in his home - who is it wolf-whistling when he bends over to take a shot in pool? - that he can't concentrate on pleasing his girl.

And this only gets worse when he gets his first glimpse of five camp ghosts in 70s disco attire, walking through his bedroom wall. He pursues them - much to Emma's increasing concern, as she can't hear or see them - and discovers they are occupying his cellar. There, they dance each night to a scratched vinyl copy of Boney M's "Rasputin".

Mark, understandably, doesn't wish to share his new home with a quintet of undead homosexuals. Or does he? The group will persist with Mark, slowly coercing him into their conversations in-between much bickering and catfighting, in an effort to see whether the muscle-bound hunk is suppressing his own gay tendencies …

With a title like that, it seems almost churlish to start talking about the technical merits of the film. I mean, does a film called POLTERGAY really exist to be discussed in terms of performances, editing and camerawork …?

No, probably not. It's as silly as it sounds, and frequently very funny as a result. The high camp value of the five poltergeists - brilliantly stuck in the 70s by way of their hideous tight clothing and dated huge hairdo's - is often amusing, as is Cornillac's increasingly frustrated mannerisms as he unwittingly succumbs to the persuasions of his unwelcome guests.

Storywise, this hokum is told well thanks to a simple frill-free screenplay from Hector Cabello Reyes, and Eric Lavaine's focussed direction. Lavaine makes sure the gags are regular and the pace is brisk, but overall treats the story as the most important factor. Everything else - characters, detail, gimmicks, FX - takes a back seat, and it's a clever device: the story is simple but constantly moving, ensuring POLTERGAY constantly engages and never buckles under it's own absurdities or gives in to unnecessary flashiness. Lavaine is too cultured to let such childish excesses overcome what is, essentially, a deceptively well-made film. Cleverness made out to look dumb - it's not as easy as it perhaps sounds.

And, sod it, I am going to mention performances because they're all good. Cornillac is a strong likeable lead, animated enough to root for and yet reserved enough to believe. Meanwhile, the ghosts are a joy to behold - great comic bickering and bitchiness prevail within their group - with Jean-Michel Lahmi taking top honours as the creepily authentic Gilles.

Depardieu is the film's heart, restoring sanity whenever events threaten to spiral completely out of control. She plays things entirely straight - wisely - and brings the spookiness back into proceedings when she observes frightened as Mark is constantly goosed by something invisible to her. In lesser hands such paradoxical performances from Mark and Emma in a single shot would not work - the mood would be totally ambiguous - but somehow Depardieu and Cornillac nail it each time.

While it's not a classic and ultimately relies too heavily on gay gags that become too familiar in the film's latter half, POLTERGAY is much better than it sounds on paper. It's funny, the acting is energetic and agreeable throughout, Lavaine's direction is self-assured and restrained, and the visuals - the cheap cheesy FX; the wonderful Gothic exteriors of the old house at dusk - are a treat.

The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic and looks fairly crisp in a washed-out and occasionally overly dark transfer. It's not the cleanest or brightest presentation, but is certainly a watchable proposition.

French audio is provided in 2.0 and 5.1 options. I focussed on the latter which offered a fair balance of channels, ensuring score and sound effects were well represented without ever impeding the level of audible dialogue.

Optional English subtitles were at hand, being both free from errors and easy to read.

An animated main menu page elicited giggles with the screen avatar being shaped in the guise of the cock scrawled in the film. This main page led into a static scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 6 chapters.

Extras begin with an excellent 28-minute Making Of documentary that manages to give real insight into the surprisingly professional production. Lavaine is exposed as an erudite and considerate director, endlessly engaging his actors on-set with discussion about motivation and how to play certain lines.

This featurette offers a wealth of behind-the-scenes footage, sometimes employing split-screen techniques to cram more info in, and winds up heightening the viewer's appreciation of the end product. It's a great documentary, filled with everything from bloopers and larking about in-between takes, to script traumas and special effects secrecy revealed. The featurette is presented in widescreen, in French with English subtitles.

A trailer is also proffered, as are trailers for several other titles: THE MASSEUR (this trailer also opens the disc), THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO OLIVEROS, SURVEILLANCE, TAN LINES, THE VAMPIRE DIARY, BROKEN SKY, COCKLES AND MUSCLES, 4:30, 4 MINUTES, SAXON and EMMA'S BLISS.

You don't have to be gay to enjoy POLTERGAY. It never rubs it's homosexual content in the viewer's face and doesn't possess that condescending "You just don't get it, I feel so sorry for you repressed heterosexuals" preaching tone that makes some gay cinema so alienating.

It is, in essence, silly fun. Surprisingly well made, too. Taking these factors into account, it doesn't (or shouldn't) matter whether it has homosexual elements or not. If you like comedy horror and don't mind it when it strays a little too far into dafter territory, this should tickle your fancy …

Review by Stuart Willis