User reviews

This is French horror at its sadistic best. House of 1000 corpses meets Hostel meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Relentless, fast paced action driven by sick/slick characters and by a moody, ominous, sepia-drenched camerawork that makes you want to pause and step out of the room for a breather. Gory but not gratuitously violent, this is Xavier Gens' tour de force, a claustrophobic gorefest of a movie that ranks up there with the best of the genre. Shame the director went from flop to flop after Frontier(s).

If you like the slasher genre, specifically the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you'll like this. This film has the same atmosphere of dread, of bad things about to happen, of bad people on the way to do bad stuff. It takes a lot longer to get to the gory part, so don't be discouraged by the first 45 minutes or so of drama. Once the killing, maiming and screaming start they don't let up.

I found it to be considerably bloodier than Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with about the same amount of suspense. There are a couple of moments when you're hoping the characters aren't really going to do what you just know they are going to do: those "ouch!" moments right before the bloodshed.

If you're tired of the slasher satire films and ready to get back to some old fashioned blood and gore, this one is for you.

What is it about European movies and psychotic families...??,well,to be honest it delivers every time you put in so much gore and violence combined with some psychotic group seeking pleasure in doing so,Frontier(s)is a new mixture of the same old formula,an effective one,The movie is brutal & violent and so a perfect one for Thriller/Slasher fans.I am always on a regular lookout for such films and somehow i always find it safe to go with some European slasher,and so along came Frontiers which is an entertaining thriller/slasher movie from France.The movie contains good 50 minutes of thrilling experience which obviously goes in its favor making it worth your time,the film at some levels is Intense & very disturbing but this makes it more interesting...great movie,loved it

Frontier(s) is a fast-paced, very violent thrill-ride from Xavier Gens. While it won't be everyone's taste, for fans of full-on gruesome action it's a must. It's basically a very decent version of 'Hostel' with a couple of thugs on the run from riot-torn Paris who seek refuge at a seedy hotel, unbeknownst what lies ahead. It's not a great film by any means but it is a thrilling one. The lead actress did a great job, but there's also good stuff the actor who played Farid and the actor who played the meathead lunatic. Its style is slick, just what I enjoy watching. Fans of the genre will know what to expect, others may not. But I recommend 'Frontier(s) for a mind-f*ck of a night. ***/*****

Churned out by the New French Extremity Movement, a new wave of French horror responsible for extreme classics like High Tension, Inside & Martyrs, Frontier(s) arrives as another one of their features that aims to break all barriers of censorship or morality by exploiting every taboo subject that's available, but fails to achieve the same impact as its better counterparts.

Set during the violent aftermath of a political election in a near-future France, Frontier(s) concerns a gang of 4 young thieves who decide to run away from Paris with a bag full of robbed money in order to start a new life. While on their way, they decide to check-in at an inn near the border to spend the night but end up discovering that their hosts are actually a group of sadistic cannibals of a Nazi family.

Although the film offers sufficient amount of disturbing content over the course of its runtime, the plot isn't as effective or sturdy enough as it was in Inside or Martyrs, and it is pretty much a disappointment in every filmmaking department. What's even more absurd is the use of Nazi angle to justify its violence because Nazis are inhuman beings after all, by nature or by default.

Direction is a letdown, screenplay is an abomination, cinematography isn't that bad, characters are stupid, performances are over-the-top & violence is mercilessly brutal although not that effective. On an overall scale, Frontier(s) is a blood-soaked gore fest which happens to be political & psychotic at the same time but its poor execution of the available resources never really lets the story take off in the first place.

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.

I'm assuming you haven't watched the movie already here, so I'm warning/telling you, that this movie will not be for the faint of hearted! It's a horror, it's shocking and it's explicit. But this all starts to happen about half an hour into the movie. So you kinda have learned (maybe even liked?) the characters. That might be a good thing, but it also means that all the pre-story gets thrown away after the mayhem begins ...

If you're looking for gore and terror, this is the only reason for you to watch this movie. There are quite a few scary passages, but there are also a few letdowns, story-wise mostly. The french again try to set a new high (or low, depending on your viewpoint) for gory movies!

Homage is a tricky thing–there is an extremely fine line in paying tribute to the cinematic works of others and merely ripping them off (hello, "Doomsday"!). And integrating a whiff of political commentary to give an aura of sophistication to what is, at heart, an unabashed splatter-fest, is even trickier (and much harder to pull of convincingly–see George Romero's "Living Dead" series). Despite how wobbly Xavier ("Hitman") Gens' blood-soaked "Frontier(s)" is in both of these departments, it comes out ahead due to its own maniacal, implacable energy; while prone to including too many monotonous chases that slow up (rather than quicken) the overall pace, there are scenes of such visceral savagery on display that it's hard to take your eyes off the screen. While some of the performances and characterizations veer dangerously close to camp, Gens comes close to establishing the same sort of fever-dream madness that made "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" so endearing: when an extreme right-wing candidate is elected to the French presidency, the citizens take to the streets in protest (the film's opening images are culled from actual news footage); using this as a cover, 5 small-time crooks knock off a bank and meet up at a countryside hostel that just happens to be run by several generations of an inbred, neo-Nazi family (including a patriarch that looks like B-movie king Roger Corman; and a sister who resembles Gen from The Genitortures); what ensues is a survival-of-the-luckiest chase through bowels-of-hell settings that have been well-established in the "Saw" and "Hostel" flicks. Gens also pulls (un)inspiration from the likes of "The Descent" (a fantastically claustrophobic tunnel-crawl; subhuman critters in underground caverns), "High Tension" (the beleaguered heroine spends the last 20 minutes wearing a literal coat of gore), and seemingly every one of the "Texas Chainsaw"s (coming closest to the family dynamic of Part III). While "Frontier(s)" spills its share of the red vino, it doesn't approach the level its reputation would lead you to believe–by comparison, the far more original "Inside" trumps this in terms of jaw-dropping carnage–but Gens instills his violence with such a brutally misanthropic tone that it comes across with more discomfort than catharsis. That being said, there is a bizarre appeal to our protagonists, probably because their initial crime and in-fighting becomes more forgivable in the face of the malevolent menace they bump up against; and the villains are grotesquely charismatic, forming an interlacing network of poison DNA and an undeniable (and undeniably perverse) sense of familial honor. "Frontier(s)" is messy, and certainly no masterpiece, but it makes for a diverting trip into the potential for genre extremity.

Frontier(s) is a French horror film written and directed by Xavier Gens, also responsible for the computer game inspired film, Hit-man. The film begins in Paris with a group of criminals involved in a heist. As they are carrying out their robbery something goes wrong and it descends into chaos leading to the group splitting up and arranging to meet in a hostel out in the sticks. Unbeknown to the criminals the hostel owners are neo-Nazi degenerates with a hidden agenda, part of this agenda being the mutilation, torture and murder of their new guests.

Ultimately I did not warm to this film as I found it to have too many problems. Coincidently the first of which occurs in the very first few scenes of the film. These opening shots utilize frantic camera-work interlaced with rapid editing that both confuses and disorientates the viewer. On a personal note I find this method of film-making to be unnecessary especially when executed so poorly. This technique is superfluous, MTV-inspired and amateurish and does nothing but cheapen the film. The over arching feeling of the opening few scenes is that of the director trying his best to hurry the viewer or rather speed up the narrative in order to get us the "meaty" part of the film. In general the direction of the film was mediocre with dingy and overly stylized scenes, the final reels being a fine example of this.

Once the "meaty" part of the film arrives we are treated to some gruesome acts of violence and horrific forms of mutilation, which to give it its due are a lot more impressive than the film Hostel. When viewing Frontiers horror fans will notice the vast array of influences/rip-offs from the previously mentioned Hostel to The Hills Have Eyes, The Descent, Wrong Turn, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of a 1000 Corpses, Blair Witch… etc etc! In fact it draws so heavily from other films a case for plagiarism could probably be made, some critics citing it as the 'French Chainsaw Massacre'. Although it seems obvious to draw comparisons with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Frontiers lacks the suspense of that film and the ingenuity of direction that was so wonderfully conveyed by Tobe Hooper. On the surface Frontiers appears to have been made by people that have seen a lot of horror films but have failed to grasp the concept of what makes them successful, something a lot of horror aficionados can do – and probably would do if they were given the same resources. Frontiers fails to further the genre or create anything new, instead it offers the same old "been here, seen it".

Essentially the film lacks identity and this is due to it feeling too much like a Hollywood film. Often fans of the genre turn to other countries for something new or fresh or for something that isn't available in their own culture, but with Frontiers this isn't offered. Being so Hollywood in its construction with its stylized death scenes and MTV School of directing it alludes to the possibility of a director that is using this film as a cleverly engineered stepping stone in his career, and given his next feature it seems to have paid off. Basically Frontiers is a film that shouldn't have left the drawing board The redeeming features for Frontiers are its violence and gore content as it does contain some memorable death scenes - but even here I still feel it's trying too hard to compete with the Saw franchise. There has been a market for this kind of violence with some referring to it as "Torture Porn" but perhaps mediocre films like Frontiers indicate that it's nearing an end. This notion is further supported by the fact the film lacks any originality or intellect – the fact it tenuously draws on recent French history and has a Sarkozy lookalike on TV doesn't qualify as intellect.

Finally, the manner in which the film has been made hints at a director that is clearly full of his own ego and if this were the case it would help to explain the shaky camera-work in the opening scenes as maybe whilst filming he's masturbating furiously at his deluded talent. I would recommend avoiding Frontiers if you like your horrors to be engaging but that maybe you'd enjoy it if you're only after high levels of violence and gore - just fast forward the first few scenes.

FRONTIER(S) is the story of a group of desperate criminals on the run from the law. They've just committed a robbery, and must flee the chaotic city. Due to unexpected complications, they must split up, meeting later at a hostel in the French countryside.

Said hostel is not at all the place it appears to be, and its inhabitants are about to show these young thieves what true madness is all about.

Drawing from several horror movie sources, and combining these elements well, this movie manages to be fresh and exhilarating to watch. It has that frenzied, TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE vibe, amped up to the stratosphere! Sort of a "kitchen sink" / fun house / slaughterhouse film that delivers almost non-stop jolts and shocks! Karina Testa plays Yasmine as a woman evolving from terrified hostage to numbed survivor. Her performance during the frantic, gore-drowned finale is certainly memorable!...

Thriller movie from France. A gang try to leave France in times of political crisis and rising racism. Eventually reaching near the border, they make a stop at a remote motel to spend the night. The family to which the motel belongs has an old Nazi in the lead, and the whole family has another, hidden business behind the motel. Ultimately, unsuspecting passengers should fight for their lives. The film began by showing political crisis in France, rise in racism, and later on focuses on an old-Nazi, in an attempt to pass some social messages. However, as a whole, it is a survival film with excellent acting, direction, great shots in gray and rain, but also underground and dark tunnels. It also has gore and splatter elements. Very good as a whole that gradually leads to the suspense and a very strong ending. Although there are many similar films, this was quite well-crafted and had its own character. It is definitely recommended for fans of the genre!

I'm surprised at all the glowing reviews here. I'm a huge fan of horror films, and I've been especially fond of some of the new French horror films being released over the past few years, but this one really missed the mark for me. I suppose my biggest gripe with this movie is that it was just plain boring. We've seen everything here a million times before. There were just no surprises and nothing fresh. I wanted to shut it off and go to bed, but I decided to stick it out. For that, I at least got to see a cool scene with a saw towards the end that was pretty neat, but it still didn't make this film anything more than average. This film borrows very heavily from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hostel. TCM is my favorite horror film ever, while I despise Hostel. I think the tone and look of Frontiers is so similar to Hostel, that it turned me off to the movie early on. And the story doesn't deviate too much from the classic TCM plot. I also really didn't like the acting from the lead during the last act. Sure, she had experienced a lot of brutality, but the zombie-like shaking and convulsing was a little over the top for me.

Meh....it's not a horrible film, and if you liked Hostel, you should give it a shot. But I definitely won't be watching it again anytime soon.

I saw this movie at Sitges International Film Festival on October, 2007, and I am still trying to survive to the shock. I've seen lots of gore movies as I am a big fan of these kind of genre in cinemas, but I hardly remember something so cruel, so brutal, so anti-human, so dirty and so extreme. It's one of those movies that you must not see with your girlfriend, otherwise you're exposed to have a deep argument about your film tastes. So you are on your own, if you have the chance to take a glimpse to this movie, don't hesitate. It's, by far, one of the most thrilling experiences in the land of gore movies for about the last 10 years.

It's not often you need an overview of recent European history to fully enjoy a horror movie. But Frontier(s) is a special case. All the negative commentary I've read seems to come from the hype surrounding this film. Is Frontier(s) blood-soaked and violent? Sure is! Is it the bloodiest, most repulsively gory film ever? No. I also agree that the basic plot doesn't really venture too far off the path of Hostel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Motel Hell for that matter. But what some people seem to be missing is socio-political climate of France in the last few years. Well, here's where a short French history lesson may come in handy. In October and November of 2005 there were a series of large-scale riots in France that stemmed from the death of two teenagers who lived in a low-income suburb of Paris. They were suspected of a break-in at a construction site and being chased by police. When they tried to hide in a power substation they were electrocuted. The civil unrest that broke out was fueled by unemployment, religious tensions, racial inequality and a growing fear of police harassment. A little over two years later more riots broke out when two more teenagers died after a police car collided with their stolen motorbike. These recent events give Frontier(s) a healthy dose of sub-text as well as a realistic backdrop for its extreme violence. Fear and intolerance are now right beside baguettes and berets as France's main cultural identity. The France seen in Frontier(s) isn't the glossed up version most of us have dreamily romanticized. There are no midnight walks on the Seine. No sipping of espresso at a sidewalk café with the Eiffel Tower in the distance. No scenic tours of the Louvre or the Arch de Triomphe. Writer/director Xavier Gens shows a modern day France that's dark, violent and in anarchy. This is the France that in 2004 banned the wearing of khimars (headscarves) by Muslim girls at school and in 2007 elected Nicolas Sarkozy — a right-wing conservative — as president. So it should be no surprise that Gens' choice of a Nazi family as the bad guys works as a not so subtle metaphor for the French Government. So, for what it's worth, anyone too myopic to know something about France's current environment probably just won't get what Gens is saying in this film.

I wouldn't say that Frontière(s) is a masterpiece but it is for certain one of the better French horror movies. A young gang of wanna-be gangsters meet their fate in the hands of a crazy Neo-Nazi-family - belongs to the line of movies like Wrong Turn, House of Wax, Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes etc. So what you get are some grotesque, violent and gory moments. Production and acting is decent - a solid watch.