MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: FRONTIER(S) (2007) (Second Sight Films Blu-ray Review)

FRONTIER(S) (2007)

Label: Second Sight Films

Region Code: B

Rating: Cert. 18

Duration: 108 Minutes 10 Seconds

Audio: French DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)

Director: Xavier Gens

Cast: Karina Testa, Aurélien Wiik, Samuel Le Bihan, Estelle Lefébure, David Saracino, Chems Dahmani, Adel Bencherif, Patrick Ligardes, Jean-Pierre Jorris

Xavier Gens (Cell) 2007 directorial debut Frontier(s) was one of the more notorious slices of 'New French Extremity', having garnered some solid buzz after it was deemed too extreme to be part of the After Dark Horrorfest, but it did eventually landing on an uncut DVD edition, which is how I first caught-up with it. It opens in Paris, France where the candidacy of a far-right politician has erupted into riots, the city is burning and violence fills streets. Amidst this social unrest a group of Muslim youths comprised of Alex (Aurélien Wiik), Tom (David Saracino), Farid (Chems Dahmani), the 3-month pregnant Yasmine (Karina Testa), and her brother Sami (Adel Bencherif ) take advantage of the chaos to pull off a heist, but Sami is shot in the gut as they flee from the cops. In the aftermath Alex and Yasmine take the mortally wounded Sami to the hospital while Tom and Farid flee the city with the loot, both parties agreeing to meet-up at an out-of-the-way yet to be determined inn located on the border, hoping to make their way to Holland to lay low.

Finding an inn Tom and Farid pull off to get a room, they are greeted by the strangely horny Gilberte (Estelle Lefébure), as well as her sister Klaudia (Amélie Daure), and muscle-bound brother Goetz (Samuel Le Bihan, Brotherhood of the Wolf). The atmosphere their is weird as hell, but it gets downright gruesome when the trios older sibling Karl (Patrick Ligardes) and the clan's Nazi patriarch Von Geisler (Jean-Pierre Jorris) arrive on the scene, and we come to find out that these are not just Nazi's but backroads cannibal clan intent renewing their bloodline, even if its with what they deem as unpure bloodlines.

Frontier(s) is a truly twisted and stomach-churning experience, it has the socio-political set-up which echoes throughout, but fear not, you need not be a French politic enthusiast to enjoy it, though the current political climate in France certainly rings true to what we see here. The films wears it's love of horror on it's bloody sleeve, the influence of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is dripping right off the screen; we have the fucked-up cannibalistic family, a creepy dinner scenes, some meat-hook action, and while there is no chain-saw there is a blood-spattered industrial table-saw scene, and a blood-covered final girl put through the wringer. Now TCM hardly has any blood in it, but this sucker is full-tilt boogie going for the throat when it comes to the gore, with some nasty and torturous carnage like snipped Achilles tendons and bloated, melty-faced steam-bath tortures are sure to evoke the traumas of something like Hostel, there's even some claustrophobic cave-tunnel horror moments that brought to mind something like The Descent. It's not original but it does execute the well-worn plan with a fervor and artful execution that holds up quite well over fifteen years later, we even get a gruesomely gorgeous head-explosion that in my estimation is better than the one in Scanners.

The cast in uniformly great, while not all of our protagonists are immediately likeable, their rioting thieves for starters, on top of that they have quite a few shortcomings as human beings, but as the stakes are raised some of their more likable traits emerge, as well as some honorable acts of selflessness - plus it's always easy to root against the evil Nazi cannibal clan, so that certainly helps. Karina Testa as final-girl Yasmine is fantastic, certainly the standout here and she gets multiple occasions to show her depth as an actor with believable moments of fear, anguish and some truly classic final girl bad-assery. On the villainous side there is no shortage of strong despicable characters to root against; we have Estelle Lefébure as Gilberte who is just as fast to fuck you up as she is to fornicate, hulking Goetz played by a truly menacing Samuel Le Bihan, and of course we have the Nazi patriarch played by Jean-Pierre Jorris - hearing that pure-blood Nazi spiel coming from his wrinkly old Nazi face will absolutely make your skin crawl, he's the worst kind of evil grandpa .

Audio/Video: Frontier(s) arrives on Region B locked Blu-ray from Second Sight Films in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1), the source of the transfer is not specified, but in the extras cinematographer Laurent Barès (Inside) states that the film was originally shot on 35mm film, but the image her looks very digital to me, complete with aliasing and scanlines, like it's been degraded in a way to emulate digital. It's always had a bit of a rough and gritty look to it on DVD and the Blu-ray looks very much along those lines as well leading me to think that this unrefined imaged is a stylistic choice, but I have no info to go by, just what my eyes are seeing. What we do get is quite grim, exterior day-for-night shots are tinted blue, scenes inside the inn and the outlying structures have a sickly yellow, it's not HD perfection but it is what it is, and it's rough hewn appearance suits the gruesome visuals of the film quite nicely. Audio comes by way of French DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 Surround with optional English subtitle, dialogue, screams, gunfire and sound effects sound great, as does the Jean-Pierre Taieb score.

There are over three hours of extras on this disc, starting off with a lively Audio Commentary with Zoë Rose Smith and Kelly Gredner, then onto a slew of new and archival

interviews. We get the 24-min Reinventing the Extreme: a new interview with director Xavier Gens; the 14-min Going Method: a new interview with actor Karina Testa; 13-min A Light in the Dark: a new interview with actor Maud Forget, 24-min Lights, Camera... Fear: a new interview with cinematographer Laurent Barès; 14-min Sounds of Violence: a new interview with composer Jean-Piere Taïeb; 27-min The Making of Frontier(s).

Aside from the copious interviews we also get Genes 32-min Fotografik Short Film; 5-min of Xavier Gens Highschool Trailers, 6-min of Frontier(s) Trailers, a cool 9-min Storyboard Comparisons; 13-min Behind-the-Scenes Photos with commentary by Xavier Gens and Karina Testa; plus 8-min of Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Xavier Gens and Karina Testa.

The single-disc release arrives in a sturdy Rigid Slipcase with new artwork by artist James Neal, inside there's a black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the same artwork. Also tucked away inside the slipbox is a with a 70-Page Illustrated Book with new essays by Dr. Sarah Cleary, Mark H Harris, Carolyn Mauricette and Alexandra West, which also includes cast and crew info, plus Six Collectors' Art Cards featuring both James Neal artwork and images from the film. The essays are fantastic, they explore the film being shunned from the After Dark Horrorfest because of the NC17 rating and it's very brief and quite limited theatrical window before getting an uncut DVD release, the political underpinnings, how it was sort of ill-received by critics initially, the Sadean influences, and much more - it's quite a great read.

Special Features:

- Audio Commentary with Zoë Rose Smith and Kelly Gredner

- Reinventing the Extreme: a new interview with director Xavier Gens (24:05)

-Going Method: a new interview with actor Karina Testa (14:00)

- A Light in the Dark: a new interview with actor Maud Forget (12:37)

- Lights, Camera... Fear: a new interview with cinematographer Laurent Barès (24:11)

- Sounds of Violence: a new interview with composer Jean-Piere Taïeb (13:41)

- The Making of Frontier(s) (27:09)

- Fotografik Short Film (31:38)

- Xavier Gens Highschool Trailers (4:32)

- Frontier(s) Trailers (5:35)

- Storyboard Comparisons (8:59)