This is one of the best horror or psycho thrillers that I have seen in a while and also one of the best Canadian/Quebecker movies in the last years. The movie is based on the novel by Patrick Senécal, his novels "Evil words" (in french: "Sur le seuil") and "7 days" (in french: "Les 7 jours du talion") have also been adapted for the cinema.
The story seems to be quite classic and simple: A young student has an accident with his bicycle in the new town where he wants to study as he is crossing a black cat. He wants to get help and rings at 5150 on Elm Street - the biggest mistake of his life! When he comes in, he hears somebody screaming in a room upstairs and he discovers that this guy is bleeding and suffering. But before the student can quit the scenery, he is discovered and imprisoned at the same place while the other poor guy doesn't survive. The young student is caught for months and his escape plans don't seem to work. He is filming his life in the small room and becomes somehow a member of the strange family: Jacques Beaulieu, the brutal, but very intelligent and charismatic father and taxi driver who is fighting the "evil one's": He tortures and kills old guys abusing children or young drug dealers. He is also a chess master and creates his "own" chess game in the basement: with dead bodies: his victims representing the black army and the good people (he is taking the bodies of dead social workers etc. from the cemetery) representing the white army. The young student has to prove that he belongs to the good or bad one's and finally Jacques Beaulieu offers a deal to the young guy: If he will beat him in a chess game and win with the black army, Jacques Beaulieu will accept and recognize that he was wrong and that the evil forces are stronger and liberate the student and so the games begin...
Maude Beaulieu, the shy and silent mother who is afraid of her husband but who doesn't have the courage or abilities to stop him. He is suffering every day and her husband has even beaten her when she was pregnant. The young student tries to become somehow her friend and to use her to escape, but Maude takes the right decision way too late.
Michelle Beaulieu, the eldest daughter is a sadistic, emotional and brutal girl and sometimes even more radical as her father, as she is making the young student suffer against the father's will. But when she has to prove that she is able to take the heritage of her father and to continue the battle against the evil persons, she isn't tough enough and becomes more and more disturbed.
Anne Beaulieu, the youngest daughter, is somehow retarded and doesn't speak a single word. She has been beaten by her father in her mother's womb and apart of her mother, no one shows or gives her any love and she doesn't have any friends. She hates her father who is making her mother and herself suffering and even tries to kill him while the father wants to get her out of the house and in an isolated and therapeutic kindergarten.
All those characters have their one personality and are brilliantly played. The movie is very close to reality and the brutal or horrifying scenes are rare, but when they come, they are really heavy and disgusting because they are so real. The movie has a dark atmosphere and every actor gives his best and his soul to this movie. A part of the family members, the main actor also begins to change and becomes more and more a strange freak who doesn't want to escape anymore - but who has found the sense of his life in wanting to beat the father and murderer in the final chess game as the armies of dead will finally be completed in a terrible way.
The end of the movie is really disgusting and disturbing, so expect the worst: Patrick Senécal wants to show the evil, dark sides of the people, the things that lie underneath the surface and he does it in a brutal consequence and nobody gets out of his created nightmare in a good way! That's what makes this movie intense and disturbing - and different from so many other movie of the genre. This one here is really innovating and hardcore and maybe not as easy to watch for everyone because of its strong relation to reality.
As you can read, this movie really surprised me and I think it's a genre highlight. The atmospheric horror grows with every minute of the movie and the grande finale is worth the wait! I just gave nine points because the basic story idea is quite simple and because the novel seems to be even more intense. Even if I told you now a lot about characters and story - the movie will still surprise and touch you! This movie should be more popular outside of Quebec too. So spread the words and have some fun with this movie: Welcome to Senécal's world of nightmares!
Don't read any longer: watch it!
