tdrish
Frontiers is a little under rated, and I do not understand why. For its realism, it's off the charts believable, which makes it very intense to watch. For that, I do recommend, I just do not recommend watching this at night...or at least, right before you are about ready to tuck yourself into bed for the night. This one is going to get in your head, trust me. It's violence and intensity is off the charts, hence warranting the film with the dreaded NC17 rating, which Xavier clearly had no intentions on removing. The story is great, casting is close to excellent, everything seems to pass with flying colors...so why the hell is this getting such a low rating? Perhaps people just don't see the point. I mean, I'll level with you, it's not all believable. The Paris riots in the beginning, fully believable. However, at one point, the main characters in the movie split off, a couple of them end up at an odd motel room that charges nothing for the rooms, and they even get lucky with the girls. Really? I call BS. It's the only thing I call BS. Trust me, you don't want to watch this late at night, and you want to wait until your lunch is halfway digested, because this film is DOWNRIGHT VIOLENT! Towards the end, it means well, as there is an unexpected twist, a story is told, and suddenly were feeling sympathetic, adding an emotional element to the works. And do you know what? It works pretty darn well, at least, in my opinion. The deaths are realistic, bloody as hell, and downright disturbing. Very intense. And very good. I cannot tell you enough, please make sure the kids are in bed for this one, you do not want to expose this to them, they'll have nightmares for the next 20 years guaranteed. To the rest of you...proceed with caution, and enjoy the show. You got a great rental on your hands.
David Davidson
This movie was so bad, it made me create this account just so I can review this movieI'm a huge fan of this genre, I really love all kinds of gory hillbilly/backwood horror movies (Wrong Turn, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Jeepers Creepers, Wolf Creek, House of Wax etc.), and since this was compared to those, I was excited when I heard about Frontier(s). But after watching it, I'm hugely disappointed and I feel misled by the descriptions and positive IMDb rating for this movie. This is one of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen. The plot didn't make sense (there wasn't much of a plot actually), the characters and their actions were bizarre and not believable at all. I didn't understand the Nazi theme thrown into it (on a side note, the German phrases used were pronounced wrong and didn't make sense either) and I didn't understand what the first 30 minutes or so had to do with the rest of the movie.I wasn't able to sympathize with the main characters, especially since they annoyed me throughout the entire movie with their moaning/screaming/crying/hysterical breathing (and for some reasons seizures and walking like zombies), and when they weren't doing that, then the antagonists were yelling, crying or grunting. The movie was praised for it's gore, but there aren't a lot of goryscenes and the ones I saw weren't good.The only scene that made me feel a bit of horror was the tunnel scene where that one guy got stuck momentarily, but that idea was probably copied from "The Descent" (and a lot of other things happening in the movie seem to be copied from other movies).I was so happy when this movie was finally over (the ending was just as bad as the rest, by the way), not because of the horror, but because I was extremely bored. It was a bad idea to give the movie a chance and continue watching after I thought about quitting it after an hour or so. Would not recommend.
Spyan
I don't think this movie is worth reviewing but I wish the note on IMDb was lower (in no way is this worth 6.3), so here goes my two bits; As many of the negative reviews point out, there is not a single idea in this film that I haven't seen in better movies. The "plot" is a carbon copy of TCSM, used as an excuse to paste scenes ripped off from here and there. Pros : the settings are not too bad, but the film is structured like a (terrible) video game, the environments keep changing so you never get to delve into/care about them. Half of the time they are ruined by very poor lighting anyway. SOME of the actors were OK (talking about the 3 main bad guys), but they were overdoing it in every single scene (+the dialog was ridiculous, it sounded fake, rehashed and written by an 18 year old). LeBihan almost looks embarrassed in some scenes, seeming like he's wondering what the hell he's doing here. Cons : the plot was a mess, and boringly predictable from beginning to end. The editing (especially during the action scene) was obscure and random. Not a single cast member (apart from the aforementioned 3) could act. To an annoying extent. Most of them, especially the protagonists, rake on your nerves by constantly trying too hard. For 1 hour and 40 long, loooong minutes. Exhausting. The director was clearly aiming for "gritty realism" but the numerous flaws and inconsistencies of this film and it's general immature feel keep pulling you out of the movie. During the final scenes (which are ludicrous), it seems like the whole cast just gives up in a big "hell, why not" and then stupidly shoot at furniture for 5 minutes. That's what I call an FX budget well spent, exploding onions and plates are so interesting to look at. And don't even get me started on the spastic antics and retarded overacting from the lead during the last final half hour.Add a mindless idiotic "social/politic subtext" implied in a total of three minutes in the whole film you get a and you get a piece of amateurish crap that takes itself way too seriously.A bland, by the numbers, done-a-thousand-times cringe fest that lacks talent and ideas overall.
Leofwine_draca
One of a new wave of ultra-explicit French horror/thrillers, FRONTIERS is everything a gore-drenched thriller should be. Set in the near future, it sees the usual bunch of unsuspecting victims holing up in a remote hotel, where they find themselves at the mercy of a hillbilly family who make the Texas Chainsaw clan look like the Brady Bunch. What follows is an odyssey of bloody murder, torture and revenge, expertly directed by Xavier Gans.I'm not really a fan of gore films per se. A lot of the horror films I love were made by Universal and Hammer, and of course these are considered tame by modern standards. But I don't mind gore when it's done right, as in the likes of HOSTEL, and it's certainly done right here too. We see brutal violence and punishment meted out to innocent victims before the tables are finally turned and the bad guys get their comeuppance, and that's just the kind of bloodshed I love watching. The film can hardly be applauded for originality but it certainly makes up for it in execution.This is a taut, tense and extremely gruelling affair which barely lets you catch your breath from beginning to end. Gans' direction is adroit and the spare script allows the story to be told mostly through action rather than needless dialogue. The performances are decent for what is clearly a low budget film, and the special effects are, of course, grisly and spectacular, especially that saw scene. FRONTIERS is a film for movie-goers who like their horror full-blooded and gritty and it beats any Saw movie hands down.
AD
