[Movies] Frontier(s)

One of the few positive things that can be said about the current Bush Administration is it inspired the Torture Porn genre. You may not think watching people being tortured and begging for their lives in movies like Hostel or Saw is the cat’s pajamas, but they’re undeniably a fascinating cultural phenomenon. The success of these films is a sign of the times and can be attributed to people being bombarded with the disturbing images of 9/11, the war in Iraq and Abu Ghraib. Relatively happy times, on the other hand, inspire bland horror movies. Look at what we had while Bill Clinton was in power: Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Craft.

As big studios continue to crank these movies out at an impressive and profitable rate, something different has been going on in France. The French have silently been releasing their own brand of horror films like Calvaire, High Tension, Sheitan and Inside that are far more disturbing and artistic than anything being produced in North America. One film that rises above the rest is Frontier(s). Watching Frontier(s) is like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and being force-fed the most violent and disturbing films you’ve ever seen by a sadistic maître d’ until you explode. The sadistic maître d’ in question is the film’s 33-year-old director, Xavier Gens.

“I wanted to make the French Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We don’t have any stories like that,” he explains from his office in Paris with an English to French dictionary in hand. The influence of Tobe Hooper’s classic is evident in style, tone and story. Riots ensue as a result of the rise of an ultra-conservative political party. Amid the chaos, some opportunistic crooks pull off a heist and flee the city until the heat is off. They arrive at a small and insignificant country inn. This inn is populated by a bunch of harmless, albeit eccentric, country rubes, who offer the crooks a free place to stay and free reign over the female employees’ bodies. Nothing to get too worried about, right?

It turns out the inn’s staff are all one big family. Not only that, and you’re going to love this, they’re neo-Nazi cannibals. What ensues is an intense and stomach-churning survival horror where people are shot, stabbed, sledgehammered, sliced, snipped, impaled, cooked and eaten. This movie doesn’t simply raise the bar for violence on screen. It takes the bar, sharpens the end and stabs you in the stomach with it.

What made him want to make such an insanely violent film? “Ummm, my childhood,” he jokes. The real motivation came from the 2002 French presidential election, “when the extreme right party was running. That was a great fear for me and I wanted to express my fear.” Further inspiration for the film came from what was going on outside his apartment. Three years ago extended race riots in the Paris suburbs led to a state of emergency being declared. “I saw from my windows a lot of cars burning everywhere. Fortunately for me, my car was in the garage.”

Reactions to Frontier(s) have been extremely positive given the content of the film. Respected genre film website Bloody-Disgusting.com gave it a perfect score. Audiences are enjoying it as well. Gens takes great pleasure from telling me about a woman who fainted three times during a screening. He’s also quick to point out “when the main actress kills the guy on the table saw, I remember in every screening I’ve attended, all the time, it’s the same reaction… There is cheering. It’s a fun moment to share with the audience.”

Ratings boards aren’t cheering though. Despite the film’s lack of sex, “The French MPAA at the beginning wanted to rate it like a porno movie” for “the extreme violence and the psychological moments that were too dark for them.” In the States, Frontier(s) was hit with an NC-17 rating, which means no teenagers, regardless of whether they’re accompanied by an adult, are able to see the film. This didn’t trouble Gens at all. “After, we made a commercial for the movie and a poster that said it was the first NC-17 [horror] movie in theaters. I was really happy. The American distributor didn’t cut anything and it’s completely my director’s cut.”

Films like Hostel and Saw typically receive an NC-17 rating on the first viewing by the ratings board. Cuts are always made to get an R rating and ensure the film will get good distribution and be seen by a wider audience. Though a mild fan of Hostel and Saw, Gens thinks “there is a real commercial thinking behind that type movie. There is no soul of the director. I know Frontier(s) is not perfect but it’s a sincere movie. I made the movie with my heart and my head… We made the movie just for the love of the art. The problem with Saw and Hostel? Those are movies made for the love of the money.” He then offered up his opinion on why Torture Porn is commercially successful. “When there is a big trauma in reality, audiences need to have a fake fear through movies. It’s to exorcise their fear of reality.” So the next time someone complains to you about how the world is going down the toilet, be sure to point out that life in the sewer isn’t all bad. Go McCain!