Cleveronix
A different way of telling a story
Sabah Hensley
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Cissy Évelyne
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
oksanasinner
The production design is the only good thing about this movie. If you enjoy spooky victorian-esqe imagery you might sit through this film without getting bored to death. Everything apart from the production is just dull. So the opening credits take us to a cold morning shore and we see decaying corpse in the sand promising us gruesome gory scenes yet to come (they won't). We meet our heroine on her first day of work as a caregiver... and then her boss spills out 90% of plot within the first 15 minutes. At this point the film starts losing it's intrigue and you're just left hoping that at least it'll deliver some scary scenes. Sadly, it doesn't. The visuals are the strongest part of the movie but they could've looked better without the heavy color filters. The premise is generic. The acting, cinematography and music are dull. There's no suspense what whatsoever. The death scenes lack any scene of threat or struggle. The victims as well as the villains are killed off too easily. It's like watching a cooking show where vegetables are getting cut. There's no good gore to make up for it either.Finally I wanna address that the whole thing is marketed as a movie about scary ballerinas but apart from girls wearing tutus that theme isn't utilized much. I think the movie could've done plenty with it but there isn't even any dancing in the film. If you wanna see it done right in a horror/thriller movie I suggest you watch 'Black Swan' (2010) or 'Suspiria' (1977).I was pretty disappointed that this came from the creators of 'Inside' - an actually entertaining horror movie with tons of re-watch value.
michschlueter
I watch plenty of horror movies and very often I am bored. The reason is: in this genre, movies often follow the same old story lines. This movie is different and that might be its biggest problem. It is not a real splatter movie, it is not a real haunted house movie, it is not a real fantasy movie or a real monster/vampire movie. It is a unique mixture of many genres and I can understand that some people don't like this film. Are there plot holes? YES! Does everything make sense? NO! Are there lame moments? YES! BUT: I really enjoyed it. I loved the atmosphere, the soundtrack and the poetic moments close to the end. This is one movie that will become a part of my Bluray collection. So my recommendation: Get some nice wine or a good cup of tea and slip under a warm blanket. In my opinion is this a movie for a great evening in autumn.
Rich Wright
Looking round a spooky old house inhabited by no-one but a comatose old lady for hidden treasure is usually not a good idea. Especially on Halloween. At the dead of night. This building is chock full of stuffed creatures, dusty relics and boarded up windows. But our three interlopers are desperate to get out of their dead-end lives, so in they go... and it turns out to be the worst mistake of their (soon to be cut short) young lives.The best horror films always have a good atmosphere, and you can feel every creak of the floorboards and each goose-pimple developing as the intrepid trio do their rounds. There are no cheap, easy deaths here... each one is built up careful and slow, until the nasty denouement. And these are people who given *gasp* BACK STORIES and what they says sounds like it could come from the mouth of a person, rather than a simple lamb to the slaughter.I'm not quite sure I understood all the plot details (even at the end) but what I can report is the execution is ingenious and genuinely disturbing. A horror with some semblance of originality, who'd have thunk it? Perhaps because it was made in France... away from the jaded genre prototypes of the USA. Coming soon: a remake, where they remove most of the chilling ambiance, and replace it with an unsubtle bloodbath, And a sassy robot. You know it's certain... 7/10
SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain
Livide is a French horror film i the style of The Orphanage, in that it has just as much heart and fantasy as it does horror. A young woman begins working as a nurse and sees a number of elderly and sick patients. One in particular catches her eye, an old woman in a coma, who it is said, has a treasure hidden on the grounds. The young nurse and her boyfriend, along with a friend, decide to find the treasure. They break into the house but get more than they bargained for. The film builds up a meticulous but thoughtful pace, bringing us slowly into the world of this house at night. The fiilm keeps the horror at a distance at first, with loud noises from upstairs etc. Once it kicks off the gore is grotesque, but used sparingly, making it even more effective. Some of the visuals are of pure fantasy and even though they are at first horrifying, Maury and Bustillo soon use them poetically. A floating vampire girl in the sunlight, a wind-up corpse etc. All scary at first, become even more disturbing as they reach us on an emotional level. I felt the film tries to do too much in the third act. It tries to give us horror and fantasy, backstory in flashbacks, kills, and exposition, to the point it got a bit muddled. Kills were suddenly followed by long jumps into the past. The film does best when it shows its story visually, which thankfully, it chooses to do most of the time. Great performances, stunning visuals, a unique feel, and a mature handling of difficult themes makes this a worthwhile horror.
