- Directed by Xavier Gens
- Written by Xavier Gens
- Stars Karina Testa, Aurelien Wiik, Patrick Ligardes
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y7XHkwu-Qo
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s grim, very violent, and really bloody. If you’re looking for a good gorefest, you’ve come to the right movie. Well made, with good acting, lots of action, twists and turns. It doesn’t make you want to visit France.
Synopsis
Yasmine tells us that she is 3 months pregnant, but the world sucks. She’s decided to save her baby from the worst of the world. Credits roll as we see scenes of civil unrest and violence throughout France.
A young couple runs from the violence. There’s a shootout on the street between the police and a bunch of bald criminals, including Alex. Yasmine calls Tom and exclaims that Sami has been shot and is bleeding out. The group all comes together in an abandoned warehouse. Sami is Yasmine’s brother, and she’s angry at Alex for causing all this. Tom has a suitcase full of money and wants to know what to do about Sami’s share, but Sami isn’t dead yet. Alex and Yasmine drop Sami off at the hospital. Sami tells Yasmine to keep the baby with his dying breath.
Meanwhile, Tom and Farid take the money and leave town, out to the country. Tom stops the car and tells Farid to get out; he’s keeping all the money. He’s just joking. They head to a little motel way out on the frontier. When they go inside, they hear from Gilberte, the woman on the counter, that all rooms are free. She calls for Goetz, a big guy who is gutting an animal in the back room. Tom and Gilberte start making out right away. Klaudia is less enthused at “taking care” of Farid, but complies with Goetz’s orders. They group heads to their room for sexy time, then they all get together for a family-style dinner.
Meanwhile, Alex and Yasmine are on the road trying to find the motel. Farid is a Muslim, and he won’t eat the pork, which offends Goetz. They force feed the food to Mother, who’s strapped to a chair in the corner. It’s all very weird and awkward.
A policeman comes to talk to Tom, who says they’re on their way to Amsterdam to meet friends. They had nothing to do with the riots, really. The cop pulls a gun and tries to take the money, but the guys run. Goetz beats Tom nearly to death with a big hammer. Farid stabs the cop and they make a run for it. Suddenly, they’re in a car chase with Goetz right behind them– until they run off a bridge and the car falls a hundred feet straight down into an old mineshaft. Farid pulls Tom out of the wrecked car, but Tom’s in pretty bad shape. They start making their way through the mine shaft. They have to crawl through a tiny, claustrophobic tunnel. Farid sees something crawling after them. Something gets them both.
Back at the motel, Alex and Yasmine show up as the others are cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. Gilberte tells them that Tom and Farid are at the hotel down the road, so they leave. In the back room, Klaudia complains about the way she’s treated by Gilberte. Gilberte leads Alex and Yasmine to a big, isolated compound even further off the road.
The family in this new place welcomes them, and they’re a creepy bunch too. The old man speaks with a German accent and has Nazi memorabilia hanging on the wall. Alex goes into the slaughterhouse and finds Tom hanging there, upside-down like a piece of meat, but he’s not dead.
Alex runs inside to grab Yasmine and go, but the old man calls for Karl, who turns out to be the “cop” we saw earlier. Karl shoots Alex. The old man and Karl talk about Yasmine, but the old man whines that she isn’t pure enough for them. Still, she’s Karl’s now, they will have to make do with what they’ve got. Hans the butcher drags them both to the slaughterhouse, where he makes sure to finish off Tom.
We soon see that Farid is still on the run in the basement of the place. and finds a warehouse full of bodies and body parts. It seems that Hans has a bunch of deformed mutant children that live in the cellars beneath the house; that’s what Farid ran into earlier. Farid hides in a steam processing room, and Hans… cooks Farid.
Yasmine swims through pig poop to escape, but Alex can’t break his chains. The old man, Von Geisler, comes in and cuts Alex’s Achilles tendons. He’s not going anywhere. Yasmine gets out and flags down a car on the road. It’s Goetz, who beats the crap out of her and takes her back to the old Nazi’s slaughterhouse. Von Geisler shoots Alex in the head; now it’s only Yasmine, and one of the girls figures out that Yasmine is pregnant.
They clean her up, and she wakes up in a normal-looking bedroom, but in chains. “Soon, you’ll be one of us,” says the littlest of the girls. She’s the one who made the mutant “children” down in the cellar with Hans.
There’s an uncomfortable dinner scene where they eat what’s left of Alex and drink a toast to pure blood. Yasmine grabs a knife and threatens the old man. Hans is tired of the old man’s bullshit and shoots him, but then Karl shoots Hans, which angers Hans’s tiny wife. Karl and Goetz grab machine guns and chase Yasmine down into the mines beneath the house.
Goetz catches her and beats her up some more. He turns on a huge rotary saw, and you know what’s gonna happen– Goetz gets gory. Karl’s still out there, and Yasmine doesn’t know the way out of the mines. He catches her in the elevator. Suddenly, his head explodes when Hans’ little wife shoots Karl from behind.
She makes a beeline for her car, but still has to contend with Gilberte and Klaudia, who both have Nazi machine guns. Yasmine shoots a propane tank, which blows up all the evil daughters and wives. Or not, because it’s a horror film. Giberte comes out and fights with Yasmine while the little wife watches and screams a lot. Yasmine tears out Gilberte’s throat with her teeth. The little wife (who doesn’t seem to have a real name) decides to stay behind with her children as Yasmine drives off.
She eventually comes to a police roadblock and surrenders. She’s a wanted criminal, remember?
Commentary
It’s got vibes from Hostel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, High Tension, with just a hint of Saw. Really, it’s just one damned thing after another in this unrelenting gorefest.
I don’t think I’ll be planning any French vacations anytime soon. Still, it had a great soundtrack, lots of action, and lots of twists and turns. It’s intense, but it’s a good one!