Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020
Images from the Internet
Nécrologies (aka Obituaries)
Directed by Fabien Chombart, Guillaume Defare, Nathalie
Epoque, Francois Message, Alexis Wawerka
Les Films d’à Côté / Sticky Notes Films / SRS Cinema
75 minutes, 2017 / 2019
When one thinks of
French cinema, the obvious go-tos are romances or silly comedies (Jean-Pierre
Jeunet’s Amelie, 2001, was both), emotional dramas such as those by
Goddard and Truffaut, or cinema of the fantastique, like The City of
Lost Children (1995, also by Jeunet).
They do not, however,
produce too many films of the horror genre, so when I had the opportunity to
get a glance at this anthology, my bouche began arroser.
 |
| Alexis Wawerka |
For the wrap-around
story, a guy with a horror blog (why does that sound familiar…) is taking
selfies of himself in a late-night, closed cemetery. He is stopped by the gargle-voiced
cimetiére watchman (Jean-Clause Dreyfus, lead actor of the 1991 post-Apocalyptic
film, Delicatessen). He presents our blogger with a book, from which
springs our tales. We return between each of the stories to the office of the
caretaker as the blogger becomes more and more intrigued by these tales,
requesting more. Googly-eyed Dreyfus is more than happy to comply, putting off
calling the cops on the trespasser to tell just one more…
 |
| Sophie Jarmouni |
First up is Nathalie
Epoque’s "Appel Mortel" (“The Call of Death”). It’s kind of a silly
story in the long run, but on the other hand, there is a level of imagination
that went into this very simple tale that made it enjoyable when the punchline
hit. In it, Elsa (Sophie Jarmouni) returns home after a rendezvous, and starts
getting phone calls on her outdated flip phone from a stalker, threating to
tell her boyfriend about her little tryst. Essentially, this is mostly a
one-person story with most other voices coming over the phone. Luckily,
Jarmouni, who has a bit of a Liza feel to her appearance, can totally handle
it. Again, it had me saying, “really?” at the end, but I was smiling at the
time.
Fabien Chombart,
"La Bête" (“The Beast”) is up next (there is a bit of a “Belle” here,
as well). As an everyman type guy (David Faure) is driving through the woods,
he spots a woman (Sabine Rosoli) along the road who appears to be wounded. Following
her deep into the forest, he learns the secret that at first scares him. While
I thought of a number of ways the story could go, it didn’t follow any of them,
so all the better. While there is some dialogue, honestly it wouldn’t matter if
the sound was on or off for this one, as the story about the connection between
the two of them crosses the language requirement. So far, the collection is
impressive.
For the third story, Ludovic
(Alexis Wawerka), the trespasser passes one along, namely François Message’s
"Le Retour des Hommes-Lézards" (“The Return of the Lizardmen”). While
the other shorts so far deal somewhat with technology, this one relies heavily
on the paranoia conspiracy theories that are rampant on the internet. An indie
filmmaker investigates a ritual by the Duckpeople (who believe in a Christ-like
figure) who claim there are Lizardpeople trying to control of the Earth (what,
no mention of “V”?), even though there is no proof of any of it on either side.
It’s easy to see where it’s going, but this one is actually very funny in a
dark tone that never really gets too heavy. Again, I smiled all the way through
it for its reliance on conspiracies in this era of Internet loonies who will
believe just about anything that is outside the norm (flat earthers, “Killary,”
the moon landing, Trump followers believing the ContraVirus is a hoax, etc.). The
ending is predictable, yet still kept my interest.
 |
| Linnea Quigley |
Wawerka (who also
plays the blogger of the wraparound), directs the next one, “Une affaire
d'enfer" (“A Hell of a Bargain”). A real estate agent is heavy handedly
pressuring an old woman and her pet to sell her house at a bargain rate. When
she refuses, the result is shocking. But not as much so as when her pet, Puzo,
takes it personally. There is a bit of puppetry involved here, and a nice
appearance by our own Scream Cameo Queen, Linnea Quigley. It’s not brilliant,
but it is bloody and relies on a bunch of previous work such as Trilogy of
Terror, yet there is still some originality in it, a bit of body parts, and
a satisfying ending, even if you see it coming.
Up last is "L'oeil
de Taal" (“The Eye of Taal’”), by Guillaume Defare. This is definitely the
most fantastique or surreal of the collection. Taal is the embodiment of
death, a leather-wearing cowboy (yes, in France) with a skull-like face. An
artist tells some tales about people who have met him (oui, this is an
anthology within an anthology; perhaps a meta-anthology?); those who come face
to face with our soul rustler tend not have long endings. This one is a bit
heavier than the other tales, and is still enjoyable, but I also found it the
weakest of the batch, even though it looks beautiful, is well edited and the
execution of mixing color with black & white work well. That probably is
because most of these are pretty light tales of fluff and fun, and this one is deeper,
and some ways doesn’t fit it. Perhaps it should have been in a different
collection where it would have been cozier, or started this one off. Again,
good tale and I’m not complaining about it overall, it’s more the juxtaposition
with the others.
As for the wraparound,
well that ends pretty predictably, again with a nod and a wink, but it was also
nicely done. As anthologies go this one is a really fine gathering of material
that generally works well together, which is just want you should want as a
viewer.
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