Coming from television, Arnaud Malherbe, released his first feature film, Ogre, a fantastic film on the screens Wednesday, April 20. The genre is not popular in French cinema, but many young directors are trying it. Arnaud Malherbe, for his part, takes the paths of the marvelous to take him towards suspense and horror.
A single mother with her 8-year-old son Jules, Chloé takes a job as a teacher in a village in the Morvan. Well received, she becomes friends with Mathieu, a reassuring doctor with unconventional practices. But the inhabitants are worried by the disappearance of a child, and the cattle are attacked. Jules feels visited at night, to the dismay of his mother whom he cannot convince of an imminent danger.
Arnaud Malherbe follows the codes of fantasy to the letter: moving into a new place, isolation, deep forest, local legend… The broken family and the (pre)adolescent troubles of Jules in the film have been part of the genre since The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973). But the director takes the side of a marvelous fantasy, very French branch since Méliès.
Arnaud Malherbe’s approach lacks seduction and atmosphere. He sticks to realistic images of a rural village, to which is added the mystery of a forbidden forest. Fantasy requires this realism to be believable, but here it lacks personality. We feel the wind coming, and Halloween by John Carpenter prowls in the nocturnal shadows of the visits of the ogre. The finale borrows from the horror and gore that French fantasy has favored since the 80s.
Ogre tries to combine marvelous and serial killer in a fantastic frame where we feel the influence of the novelist Claude Seignolle, in the rural roots of the genre. The ambience and the atmosphere so pregnant with this bewitching vein are however only touched upon.
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Gender : Drama
Director : Arnaud Malherbe
Actors : Ana Girardot, Giovanni Pucci, Samuel Jouy
Country : France / Belgium
Duration : 1h43
Exit : April 20, 2022
Distributer : The Jokers / The Bookmakers
Warning: scenes, comments or images may offend the sensibilities of viewers
Synopsis : Fleeing from a painful past, Chloé starts a new life as a teacher in the Morvan with her 8-year-old son Jules. Warmly welcomed by the inhabitants of the village, she falls under the spell of Mathieu, a charismatic and mysterious doctor. But terrible events disturb the tranquility of the villagers: a child has disappeared and a wild beast attacks the cattle. Jules is on the alert, he feels it, something is prowling around the house at night…