The bleakness continues in 2006’s French nightmarish, atmospheric grim-fest Sheitan, the film-making debut of director Kim Chapiron. It’s a little bit arty, a big bit crazy and a thoroughly grimy time at the movies. The plot follows the exploits of a group of incredibly unlikeable young guys as they travel to a festive after-party in the middle of nowhere before finding themselves at the mercy of creepy farmer Joseph (Vincent Cassel) who has some decidedly un-Christmassy stuff planned for them. It sounds like the formula for a straightforward slasher movie, though Chapiron’s film is anything but. However, it certainly is, like most slashers, a cautionary tale about how horniness can land you in a whole heap of trouble.
I find this one pretty unpleasant, but not in a very exciting way. It doesn’t feel like much happens until the last twenty minutes or so when, thankfully, the craziness gets cranked up exponentially. We’re forced to hang out with three undesirable young guys, Bart (Olivier Barthelemy), Thai (Nico le Phat Tan) and Ladj (Ladj Ly,) who are out clubbing on Christmas Eve. They’re skint, acting obnoxious towards young girls and hassling bartender pal Yasmine (Leila Bekhti) for freebies. In the UK we’d refer to these guys as Chavs, Neds, or ‘arseholes.’ After the particularly odious Bart gets bottled and thrown out of the club, the lads jump at an invitation from sexy young stranger Eve (Roxane Mesquida) to come hang out at her family’s gaff in the countryside. Of course, these guys don’t know they’re in a horror film and that you should never, ever do that.
Out in the sticks, they meet Eve’s sinister, yet oddly jolly housekeeper Joseph, a seriously weird, wild-eyed, disheveled, permanently grinning bloke who’s definitely the sort of guy you would not want to wind up sitting next to on a bus. He seems friendly enough but is soon cracking out the ‘camel-rider’ quips in front of Algerian Yasmine like it’s no big thing.
So begins a very weird, discomforting day in the countryside for our city-dwelling gang, involving skinny-dipping with the inbred locals, milk offered direct from goat’s udder to mouth, and a ‘party’ at a house filled with sinister mannequin body pieces. Seriously, these guys are so determined to get laid that they can’t read the signs that might as well say ‘YOU ARE GOING TO DIE’ in big blood-red letters.
Thing is, it’s all rather slow, with too much sitting around listening to these douchebags bragging about how tough they are and all the sordid things they plan to do to Eve, who is clearly the honey in this trap. In a regular slasher film, these morons would be the first to go, the kind of guys who rifle through Eve’s stuff, sniff her panties and wee on the toilet paper. Misogynistic flashbacks add nothing other than to remind us how detestable these pricks are. There’s a bit of lively debate about religion and atheism – hey, it wouldn’t be Christmas without it – which takes a chilling turn as Joseph takes the opportunity to tell a suspiciously autobiographical-sounding tale of a bloke making a deal with the devil (or ‘Sheitan’ in Arabic), which involves having sex with his own sister in exchange for invincibility. There is a small chance this might come up again later.
There’s a lot of pretty dull build-up, so thank God then for Cassel’s fantastically berserk turn during the film’s final stretch when what seemed like a relatively realistic tale takes the sharpest left turn into bonkers, supernatural bloody insanity. Not to give too much away, but a baby is born at the stroke of midnight and I’m pretty sure it ain’t Jesus.
It’s a moderately effective curiosity of a film that taps into those well-worn Straw Dogs/Texas Chainsaw fears of country folks and their creepy ways. These are not your bible’s shepherds, with the whole thing culminating in a freaky sort of anti-Nativity. The film also utilises a cool, flashy, kinetic visual style that just about prevents things from getting too boring.
If nothing else, this one reminds me of long forgotten boozy weekends as a young man after all-night parties, spending the entire following day dossing around someone’s messed-up gaff, not wanting the party to end, hoping something fun might happen. Kids - in this situation, as Bart and his dumb little buddies learn, nothing good can or will ever happen. Get your asses home, it’s Christmas for Devil’s sake.
Comments