One of my most anticipated titles of Fantasia this year was the latest by the French directing duo behind one of my favorite entries in the New French Extremity, The Soul Eater. Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, who helmed the extreme cult classic Inside are back, with a film that was written by newcomers Annelyse Batrel, Alexis Laipsker and Ludovic Lefebvre, which disappointingly felt more like a derivative knockoff lacking the energy of their previous works.
The film essentially is the story of two cops from different organizations played by Virginie Ledoyen and Paul Hamy, who are summoned to the small remote town of Roquenior where there’s been a brutal double homicide. Ledoyen’s character is there because of the extreme nature of the crime, that has a couple stabbing each other to death in an orgasmic frenzy of blood and gore and Hamy’s character is there because a notorious white van was found on the premises. This van just happens to feature prominently in his investigation of six missing children and their cases intersect with the single living witness. The young son of the dead couple who won’t stop talking about a local urban legend called “The Soul Eater”.
While the performances are full of gravitas and there is a palatable chemistry between the pair, it thankfully never culminates into anything on screen. This only works to keep you firmly invested in the stakes and a plot that at best felt like it was cribbed from one of the lesser seasons of True Detective, with some big swings that missed every mark with its hollow mix of the cults and the supernatural. This also goes for the look and overall atmosphere of the piece as well, it just felt too derivative of Detective’s bleak lower income dystopian world, where basically everyone is poor and a terrible person. By the time everything eventually culminates in the third act, it manages to betray any trust the viewer had in these directors at the ridiculousness of the logic employed to justify a The Happening level bad reveal.
It also didn’t help that I sat down to watch this after my second viewing of Longlegs, which also uses its plotting to construct a similar otherworldly murder fueled mystery box. But unlike Longlegs, which really earns its ending by filling every nook and cranny with dread and this otherworldly ambience and breadcrumbs, this film just feels like they pulled a Lost and had no idea how they were going to stick this landing and pay off these mysteries, which don’t get me wrong had possibility. It’s a shame because I really enjoyed the leads’ performances and I think the concept of regionalizing or adapting Detective, might have actually been a good idea, depending on the execution. You just need to have a concept and delivery on par with the original, otherwise it’s going to be a knockoff like Soul Eater rather than an impassioned homage or love letter.
