2001 Directed by Pascal Langier
The film was controversial upon its release, receiving polarizing reviews from critics and has been associated with the New French Extremity movement
Synopsis
Tells the story of Anna, once a missing little girl, found wandering a year later on a country road virtually catatonic after suffering some sort of physical abuse. She grows into a comely young woman, but she's got serious issues. She also has a close friend, Lucie, who she ultimately calls after she finds herself in an unusual house in the middle of the forest. There's something very disturbing about the Bauhaus-esque home, something Anna can't quite put her finger on.
Time was when horror films like The Exorcist or Texas Chainsaw Massacre were considered almost toxic, as if they could actually damage the viewer. While there has never been any evidence to support this, that's the level of expectation a good horror should arrive with, and that's what you get here. This French movie starts off like a standard revenge thriller, as two young women track down the people who had kidnapped one of them as a child. But why they kidnapped her and what happened during that time spins the second half of the movie into incredibly harrowing yet oddly spiritual territory. It's incredibly brutal and violent, a "don't eat before watching, can't eat after" kind of movie.