Welcome to the Cutting Room

Despite, as previously mentioned, being afraid of everything as a kid I also had a raging case of FOMO, especially when it came to things I wasn’t supposed to see, watch, listen to, etc. The more forbidden a piece of media was, the more I coveted it. Like many of the disaffected suburban youth of my generation, I grew up with minimally filtered access to the internet and saw more than my fair share of real life gruesomeness before I was legally an adult. I thought desensitizing myself to imaginary horrors (as well as some real ones) made me *so* cool as an edgy teen, probably because I couldn’t handle any of it before then. I leaned hard into extreme horror in my late teens/early 20s as an attempt to cope (poorly) with the turmoil in my personal life (don’t worry I’m in therapy). Coincidentally, around this time some of the most vile “torture porn” was either recently released or about to be (“Hostel,” the “August Underground” series, “A Serbian Film,” etc.) and my troubled little heart ate that shit up. I feel like this first paragraph is turning into a fucked up version of the cute personal anecdotes before recipes, but that might also be something you’re here for, so You’re WELCOME. As I watched the worst things I could find (totally not as an act of self harm), I did find a few gems; movies that, while horrifying, were good. “Inside” (À l’intérieur) was one of them (“Martyrs” too). When the French do bleak they do it well.

Being pregnant is something that’s always terrified me (nothing but respect to those of you who want to be parents, you do you and I’ll do me), and hoo boy “Inside” didn’t do anything to help that. Home invasions also terrify me. This movie combines those things! The feature debut of Julien Maury and Alexander Bustillo (they also made “Livid/Livide” which is a wild ride), “Inside” is mean. It’s bleak. The tension alone is worth the watch. Add in some gorgeous shots and Beatrice Dalle’s unhinged performance as the mysterious antagonist known only as “La Femme” and it makes for a bloody good time for the audience. Kinda. As I’ve aged my tolerance for gore has diminished, and this was a pretty hard rewatch for me.

“Inside” opens with a head-on collision between two cars on a rainy day. The visibly pregnant Sarah (Alysson Paradis) regains consciousness at the wheel to see her husband dead next to her. There’s no info on the driver of the other car but Sarah’s been told she’s the sole survivor. The bulk of the movie takes place four months after the accident. Suburbs of Paris are embroiled in civil unrest after the accidental death of two teens and Sarah’s boss and mother are concerned for her safety. Sarah’s baby is overdue (which sounds miserable) and she’s set to have her labor induced on Christmas morning. Her doctor jokingly tells her to “enjoy (her) last night of peace and quiet,” foreshadowing that this night will bring neither peace nor quiet. This just in, “Inside” could technically be classified as a Christmas horror movie but probably won’t make it into my usual holiday rotation. Enough segue, back to the movie.  Understandably, Sarah’s a wreck. She’s lost her husband, it seems like everyone in her life expects her to go about business as usual (which what the fuck, c’mon guys). Instead, Sarah has taken to isolating herself away from her well-meaning friends (same), and finds herself watching and photographing a young family in the park (it’s not creepy, she’s a professional photographer. Ok, it’s still a little creepy). She’s turned down invitations to join holiday celebrations from her mom, her boss, and friends who don’t want her to be alone on Christmas Eve.

After a horrible nightmare in which her unborn baby crawls out of her throat Sarah hears a knock at her door. I really do wonder how many of these movies wouldn’t start if the protagonist didn’t answer the door. I never answer my door unless I’m expecting someone, and even then it depends on the person. Sarah, making the first of many terrible decisions, interacts with the shadowy figure outside her door. She can’t make out any physical details, but the woman at the door pleads with Sarah to let her come in and use the phone (her car broke down, etc. NEVER ANSWER THE DOOR – this exact situation has become a well-known urban legend). Sarah makes the excuse that she doesn’t want to wake her sleeping husband, but the strange woman assures Sarah that not only does she know Sarah’s husband is dead, she addresses her by name. Chills. After Sarah threatens to call the police on the mysterious woman she vanishes.

Sarah DOES call the cops shortly after, but not until we see the woman smoking outside Sarah’s window (in one of my favorite shots in the movie), her face illuminated in the glow of her cigarette. After punching Sarah’s window (and cracking it, god damn), Sarah calls the cops. Terrified, she arms herself with a kitchen knife and her camera, snapping a picture of the mysterious woman (smart) to hopefully help identify her. Sarah rushes to develop the photo she took of the would-be intruder and notices the woman in the background of the photos she took at the PARK. La Femme has clearly been playing the long game.

Because it’s a movie and not real life, the cops show up shortly after Sarah calls to investigate. After a brief search of the property, the police assure Sarah that she’ll be safe and they’ll send some officers later in the evening to make sure. Unfortunately for everyone, the would-be home invader turns into an actual home invader, slipping inside at some point during the search. Assuming the excitement is over, Sarah medicates herself to make sure she’s well rested for her induction in the morning and goes to bed . Not long after she’s whisked away to Dreamland, the sinister stranger appears at Sarah’s bed. Our antagonist looks dressed for a funeral, not amateur surgery (but I guess it’s fitting, spoiler alert), but sure enough she approaches Sarah’s pregnant belly with a massive pair of scissors (dipped in rubbing alcohol WHICH ISN’T ENOUGH TO SANITIZE ANYTHING YOU GUYS. Don’t do amateur surgery regardless but ESPECIALLY don’t do it without proper sanitary practices), intent on performing an at-home C-section on the sleeping mother to be. Shocked awake by the pain of the scissors piercing the skin of her belly, Sarah fights off the stranger and locks herself in the bathroom, where her water promptly breaks. Great timing, kid.

Sarah’s boss, Jean-Pierre (François-Régis Marchasson), appears at her home. He’s supposed to give her a ride to her induction, but drops by much earlier than planned after receiving the message left by Sarah. She has developed the photo of La Femme, and is hoping he can help her enhance it. He lets himself into Sarah’s home and encounters La Femme. She passes herself off as Sarah’s mother UNTIL SARAH’S ACTUAL MOTHER SHOWS UP. Now that everyone’s aware of something being WRONG, the proverbial shit hits the fan. The worst Christmas Eve ever continues with the deaths of Sarah’s mother, boss, and (completely unnecessarily) cat in quick succession, in varyingly terrible ways (backed by some appropriate musical stings). Hellbent, La Femme has her Jack Torrance moment and stabs through the bathroom door to gain access to Sarah and her baby, finally revealing that she’s there for the baby. If this is what it means to hear one’s biological clock ticking I’m glad mine is broken.

The tension is (briefly and ironically) broken by the arrival of more cops. La Femme traps Sarah in the bathroom to make sure she doesn’t flee and answers the door, clutching a knitting needle (hell yeah). She assures the police that all is well, and upon their exit returns to Sarah to continue playing Grand Theft Baby. In another divergence from what would probably actually happen, the cops return a beat later to do some actual investigation; one cop asks La Femme what she plans to name her baby and the other stumbles upon Sarah, her bloodied arm stuck to the wall with scissors and screams for his partner to arrest La Femme. Remember how she grabbed a knitting needle? It’s used. On some eyeballs. La Femme once again gains the upper hand (and the cop’s gun) and shoots her way through the other cop’s face and the bathroom door, finally gaining access to Sarah. A third cop who was waiting in his car with an unfortunate kid they arrested (racially profiled, in the first realistic part of this movie involving cops) brings the kid into the house shackled to him to investigate the shots. For fuck’s sake. I think we all know their fate(s).

La Femme hunts down Sarah (that all of this happens in one night is bonkers) who tries to turn the tables, telling the villain she’ll kill her unborn baby so no one gets what they want. La Femme whacks her in the head with a toaster and smugly lights a cigarette. Coming out of her toaster induced haze, Sarah SPRAYS HER WITH COOKING SPRAY, setting the woman on FIRE. Hell yeah. The woman, her head engulfed in flames, flees so she can not be on fire anymore. Sarah seems like she’s given up (and who can blame her?!) but rallies and attempts to have her “John Wick” moment. Instead, when she finds La Femme smoking (literally) in a closet, the villain reveals that she was driving the other car in the accident that killed Sarah’s husband; she was also pregnant, but the accident caused her to miscarry. She’s been playing the looong game. Feeling she’s owed a baby, La Femme finally performs the world’s least sanitary C-section and Sarah slowly bleeds out on the stairs.

In the aftermath we see the grossly disfigured (and crispy) antagonist cradling a fussy newborn, still covered in blood and viscera. She rocks the baby and kisses its forehead; finally she’s a mother.

“Inside” is so mean spirited and cruel but goddamn is it well made. There are CGI sequences involving the fetus which are pretty tacky and (I feel) unnecessary. That and the animal death take away from the rating I’m giving it (there’s no need for animal death in horror movies. It’s a lazy device. I know it upsets people, myself included, and serves its purpose by doing just that, but literally anything else would be better). Otherwise, “Inside” is absolutely an edge of your seat, elevated blood pressure kind of film. There’s (of course) an American remake that I haven’t seen and don’t plan to, so if this sounds like the movie for you make sure you double check which version. I give “Inside” 3.5/5.

As  always, I recommend checking Does The Dog Die for any triggers or things you don’t want to see before starting *any* horror movie (especially extreme horror)

All views expressed are my own, you don’t have to agree with them! I’m open to respectful discourse.

Feel free to leave any movie recommendations or anything you’d like to read a review of!