10 French Horror Movies You Need To Watch
4. Frontière(s) (Frontier(s))
Xavier Gens' independent horror opens with five activists fleeing Paris after a city-wide riot breaks out. After seeking shelter at a hostel, the quintet believe they're finally safe. But when they discover their hosts are Neo-Nazis, things quickly go from bad to worse to hell on Earth.
Frontiere(s) feels like if Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostel, and Saw had a baby (who then stabbed everyone in the face). The trailer emphasises the torture is depicted with such realism, it has to play jovial music throughout to make the scenes more tolerable to watch.
Of course, the ghastly sequences involving pliers, hatchets, and bench saws wouldn't matter unless the characters were compelling. Fortunately, the ensemble is fleshed out early on, so it's genuinely upsetting when they start losing digits and limbs.
The lead character, Yasmine, proves to be a badass heroine, especially since she's fighting these psychos while pregnant. Realising nobody is coming to her rescue, Yas takes charge of the situation, relying on her smarts and resourcefulness to overpower her captors.
Frontiere(s) is renowned for its Video Nasty gore, but it should be recognised more for devising such an underrated final girl.