Time: 82 Minutes
Cast:
Béatrice Dalle as La Femme
Alysson Paradis as Sarah Scarangella
Director: Julien Maury, Alexandre Bustillo

I had heard about 2007’s Inside for the longest time. It’s one of the most notable films from the New French Extremity movement, a range of French movies known for being transgressive and controversial in how extreme they could get. Of these movies, I had already watched Irreversible and Martyrs and both certainly lived up to their reputations. So it was little surprise that Inside was very much the same case.

Inside is a very straightforward movie: a pregnant woman is being house-invaded by another woman who wants her baby, and it gets as messy as how it sounds. The movie takes this simple home invasion thriller premise and pushes it even further to its most extreme levels. After the initial setup, you are thrown right into the action and it doesn’t let up until it reaches the end. Inside is relentlessly violent, brutal and ruthless in its gore and carnage, and absolutely isn’t for the faint of heart. Despite how disturbing and bleak it could get however, I couldn’t look away. It does well at creating this incredibly tense and suspenseful atmosphere, which kept me invested from beginning to end. The short runtime of 79 minutes was suitable, and the tight pacing helped to ensure that you never feel relaxed.

Alysson Paradis and Beatrice Dalle deliver amazing and ferocious performances, effectively conveying their characters’ extreme emotions. Dalle is especially a standout as the threatening home invader, unrelenting and a force of nature, almost coming across as supernatural.

Inside is directed by Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury, and their work here is great. With the camerawork, editing and production design, they created a constant claustrophobic feeling within this one house. There is a ton of violence throughout and the film doesn’t hold back at all, especially in the third act. The gore is vile and messy, but it makes it just realistic enough to give them an even more disturbing edge. Along with the effects, they’re made even more grisly by the visceral sound design.

Inside is an extreme, brutal and highly tense home invasion horror thriller, straightforward yet excellently executed, and with great leading performances. That being said, it’s really not for the faint of heart.