Available from Amazon on Monday 7th July 2008 priced at £9.99

A twisted and completely self-indulgent festival of gore, Frontière(s) (or Frontier(s) in English) is a constant barrage of pain. But then what would you really expect from Xavier Gens, the man behind HITMAN?

The premise is that a group of young thieves are fighting their way out of a robbery in the midst of violent riots that have followed a general election. This sets the tone of ethnic tension that ostensibly fuels the ensuing melee as the thieves hide out in a small country inn, only to find it’s run by neo-nazi cannibals. Although once the blood begins to flow the extent to which it’s fuelled by racial motivation is about as noticeable the water in a sewer as all of the crap floats past you.

This really is just a movie that’s all about the shock-factor, pure and simple. It’s just one brutal attack after another and I have to say that for the most part, it works. This is thanks to the sheer volume and variety of hacking, slashing, shooting, bludgeoning, burning and maiming that graces the screen throughout it’s 108 minute duration. We’ve got shot guns, meat cleavers, frying pans, all sorts of flammable gases, mutilated children confined in darkness and even a car dashboard used to inflict the maximum amount of pain on the wretched inhabitants of the movie. That’s not to say that there’s a lot that’s new in here, just that Gens knows his horror well and isn’t afraid to reach into this arsenal of aggression and haul out everything it has to offer.

It must be noted, however, that the creepiness of the neo-nazis themselves provides able support to the brute force on which the appeal of FRONTIER(S) is based. Drawing on some of the best, worst and mediocre of dark nemeses from the genre, these nasty man eaters exhibit elements of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and RED DRAGON and many more besides in their quest to provide back-up material in the brief respites between the scenes of blood-shed, they often come across as pretty laughable (particularly the elderly head of the family whose random German utterance are just stupid) but somehow manage to harness that into the strange adrenaline-fuelled glee that accompanies the inventive killings that are always around the corner. Gens could have skimped a bit with some of the bizarre family subplots though, with the unfathomable relationship between a young girl and the fat son of the family being one of the most cumbersome additions clearly included to facilitate the mayhem.

But whilst it occasionally feels clunky, its persistent brutal intensity is ultimately too absorbing to criticise. I found myself laughing manically as the various sadists perpetrated their increasingly excessive and exciting acts of terror. It’s definitely a lot of fun, but I doubt it’s good for your mental health, and you might feel just a little bit dirty afterwards…

EXTRAS

Not a lot here, a ‘Making of’ which gives a decent behind-the-scenes look at all of the ketchup and stuff the spewed all over the set to create the messy messy scenes of hurt that lie within.

And the obligatory trailers.