User reviews

I didn't feel that this film was quite as clever as it seemed to think it was but enjoyed it nevertheless.

It is original, although reminded me a little of two other French films, Vidocq and City of Lost Children, mostly for the colouring but also for the edgy quality of the close ups of the characters.

Set in a prison cell but do not let this put you off, this film seemingly goes further than many a multi locationed blockbuster.

Always interesting, with the perennial 'Black Arts' well to the fore and very good characterisation making some only too believable!

Scary with some gore this is well worth a viewing.

Watched this French horror film last night and pretty much liked it. The whole movie takes place in a prison cell with basically three prisoners who find a hand written journal in a wall from a serial killer that had escaped the prison 20 years earlier, somehow without leaving his cell. As they look through the diary, they discover it delves into the black arts and commands that might be their way out of the cell and to freedom. What they find out, is something completely different, and horrifying to say the least. I like low-budget horror films, that deliver the goods in a fairly quality way, and tell a good story. This movie does just that, despite taking a while to get going. The result and the horror they unleash is very interesting to me, and I enjoyed the ride. Not a lot of gore, but that wouldn't fit the story, although the gore it has is pretty good.

First of all - I hate french movies. I dunno why, but I simply can't stand them it seems. I didn't like "Brotherhood of wolves", I was bored by "Delicatessen", I slept through "Taxi". So one can say that watching "Malefique" was a big step for me - especially because it was praised high by people who liked all the mentioned movies.

But I have to admit, this time they where absolutely right. "Malefique" has a very gripping atmosphere and grabs the viewer from the first second. The characters are believable (but not likable), the setting is really claustrophobic and the story has enough twists and turns to keep even the most cynical horror fan guessing what's coming up next.

There's even enough splatter to keep the gore hounds awake and - absent from a surprise ending that's not exactly surprising - the movie is mostly original and doesn't copy anything you've ever seen before. Also very interesting is that - even if the whole movie plays in a prison - you won't get the usual clichés.

So with "Malefique" and "Haute Tension" (wich also is great but in a totally different way) it seems that french horror is again something to keep your eyes on.

Great Movie 8 out of 10

In a penitentiary, four prisoners occupy a cell: Carrère (Gérald Laroche), who used his company to commit a fraud and was betrayed by his wife; the drag Lassalle (Philippe Laudenbach) and his protégée, the retarded Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud), who ate his six months sister; and the intellectual Marcus (Clovis Cornillac), who killed his wife. One night, Carrère finds an ancient journal hidden in a hole in the wall of the cell. They realize that the book was written by Danvers (Geoffrey Carey) in the beginning of the last century and is about black magic. They decide to read and use its content to escape from the prison, when they find the truth about Danvers' fate. "Maléfique" is an original, intriguing and claustrophobic French low-budget horror movie. The story is practically in the same location, does not have any clichés and hooks the attention of the viewer until the last scene. I am a great fan of French cinema, usually romances, dramas and police stories, but I noted that recently I have seen some good French horror movies, such as "Un Jeu d' Enfants", "Belphegor" and "Dead End". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Sinais do Mal" ("Signs of the Evil")

Good horror movies from France are quite rare, and it's fairly easy to see why! Whenever a talented young filmmaker releases a staggering new film, he emigrates towards glorious Hollywood immediately after to directed the big-budgeted remake of another great film classic! How can France possibly build up a solid horror reputation when their prodigy-directors leave the country after just one film? "Haute Tension" was a fantastic movie and it earned director Alexandre Aja a (one-way?) ticket to the States to remake "The Hills Have Eyes" (which he did terrifically, I may add). Eric Valette's long-feature debut "Maléfique" was a very promising and engaging horror picture too, and he's already off to the Hollywood as well to direct the remake of Takashi Miike's ghost-story hit "One Missed Call". So there you have it, two very gifted Frenchmen that aren't likely to make any more film in their native country some time soon. "Maléfique" is a simple but efficient chiller that requires some patience due to its slow start, but once the plot properly develops, it offers great atmospheric tension and a handful of marvelous special effects. The film almost entirely takes place in one single location and only introduces four characters. We're inside a ramshackle French prison cell with four occupants. The new arrival is a businessman sentenced to do time for fraud, the elderly and "wise" inmate sadistically killed his wife and then there's a crazy transvestite and a mentally handicapped boy to complete the odd foursome. They find an ancient journal inside the wall of their cell, belonging to a sick murderer in the 1920's who specialized in black magic rites and supernatural ways to escape. The four inmates begin to prepare their own escaping plan using the bizarre formulas of the book, only to realize the occult is something you shouldn't mess with… Eric Valette dedicates oceans of time to the character drawings of the four protagonists, which occasionally results in redundant and tedious sub plots, but his reasons for this all become clear in the gruesome climax when the book suddenly turns out to be some type of Wishmaster-device. "Maléfique" is a dark film, with truckloads of claustrophobic tension and several twisted details about human behavior. Watch it before some wealthy American production company decides to remake it with four handsome teenage actors in the unconvincing roles of hardcore criminals.

Low budget French horror that nearly succeeds, but disappoints in the end.

How many films do?

At times excellent characterization mood. Suspense are tightly built up. But more depth would have made this movie great. Many of the characters lives and motivations are left unexplained. Why is he in prison? Why does his wife want to leave him?

There are some laurels for this movie. The one set for most of the movie, the cell is an excellent idea. Some bizarre moments involving limbs and sodomy.

Would you watch it again probably not.

I was really pumped to see this one and when I began watching it I realized it was not going so well...

The characters may seem good at first, but they get boring and annoying after 10 minutes. Story was so slow that you forget what's the movie about. Characters do some stupid stuff that makes almost no sense sometimes. Atmosphere is not that great, it really gives you some promise, but the characters ruin it. Maybe too much light also.

Movie is not bad BAD movie but to me it was not enjoyable at all. I usually love French movies, but this one was boring, at least to me! I'm not saying not to check it out cause you might like it but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought i would.

Maléfique is a very interesting movie. It is an unholy alloy of triumphs and failures. The central concept is great, three inmates with bizarre personalities are joined by a fourth (who the audience identify with) and they try to escape from their cell using a book of magic that they find within the walls of the cell.

The atmosphere is well-woven, it reminds me of reading about the prison stay of Edmond Dantes' in the Château d'If (prior to becoming the Count of Monte Cristo). The director sets up the feeling that the characters are tied to the cell, particularly the character we are meant to identify with (Carrère - a white-collar criminal whose crime is not specified, but it's obliquely suggested might be fraud). On one occasion Carrère dithers when leaving the cell for exercise and has the cell door shut on him; we never leave the cell, the claustrophobia is unbroken. There are also no shots of the prison outside the cell, and the view through the bars is a longing sunset over a generic prison wall. So even though the film appears to be very modern, it has a very old world feel of incarceration.

The characters are intriguing. We have Marcus, a violent pre-op transsexual who plays an abusive mother to Pâquerette (French for Daisy) a heavily retarded young man. Pâquerette likes to eat everything he finds beautiful, and unfortunately this included his baby sister, hence his current predicament (I like this comment on internalisation, very primitive). Lasalle is a withdrawn, possessed elderly man, in for brutally murdering his wife.

The central message of the movie is that your desires will annihilate you, and there's a ritual that goes with that. I think that's what disturbs me the most, seeing people destroying themselves ritualistically. It has a real life ring to it. The quite simple soundtrack backs this up well, every step deeper into the quicksand is accompanied by the dull ringing of a gong. I'm actually hearing the gong now every time I do something self-destructive.

I think one of the plot problems is that the ends of the characters don't really reinforce the message consistently, particularly with Carrère, also the concept of the book seems to alter throughout the film, not in terms of a successive revelation either. I also think that some of the images we see are a bit amateurish, more by design than execution, such as the famous "vagina eye", and the sodomy of Lasalle, for me, totally hollow images.

At the end the movie it feels like the director is in a rush to get it over with, and some things don't seem logical, for example we've been clumsily led to believe different things about Carrère's child. This doesn't change the fact though that what we have here is that rare bird, a "pure" horror movie. There is no comedic dross or genre segueing, like Cube (1997/Natali), the obvious movie to compare it to, it's a total immersion experience, where you feel as if you are in the cell with the characters. This last comment I make about it being a "pure" experience I think is something others have mentioned as well so that is a fairly unanimous point.

On a personal note my favourite part of the film is when Lasalle talks about his past as a librarian. He very vividly describes a scene where he goes to work one day and sits down in his usual place in the centre of a room where all the books are arranged in a circle around him. The books seem to be chanting to him that he will never contain their knowledge. This prompts Lasalle to go insane. That really is the problem with an obsession with understanding and knowledge. It's something I myself have felt.

One final comment is that two of the quite well-received comments on the board have confused the characters' names. To convince yourself that Lasalle is the older librarian character, simply click on Philippe Laudenbach's page and you will see he was born in 1936.

From my not too wide experience with French Horror films (basically Martyrs and The Inside) I've learnt that they could be quite sick. Malefique isn't so much sick as it is disturbing and slightly depressing. It's not your ordinary everyday Horror film, but it does have it's Horror-like disturbing moments and aspects of the story. It's also the first Horror film I've ever seen that takes place in a prison.

I can't say much about the screenplay and script as I don't speak the language, but the story was pretty average and all that original. Some prisoners find an old journal that used to belong to another prisoner, and deals with occult black magick. The audience is told the tale of their everyday routine as cons, then the changes it and they undergo upon finding the book and attempting to decipher it. The cinematography is also quite ordinary, with few scenes shot as seen from a video camera, like in a found-footage/mockumentary film. The impressive bit is that the entire film takes place almost solely in a prison cell (except for two short scenes, one in the visiting room and one at the prison office), so it's basically single location. I always like seeing how directors face the single location challenge, and in this case Eric Valette has done well.

As probably said before, what really makes this film is the characters, who are bizarre to the point of being fantastic and unrealistic at the same time as being as realistic and compelling as they come. Protagonist/Antagonist Carrère (Gérald Laroche) used to run a company and it's implied that he "took some shortcuts", probably financial ones. He's almost obsessed with being bailed out so he could be with his son. There's Marcus (Clovis Cornillac), a brute force character who likes to use his strength to get what he wants. He's also a very masculine drag- queen with breasts, make-up and everything that is obsessed with working out and keeping fit so he could escape by climbing the prison wall with 50 kg on his back. The 50 kg refer to Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud), a funny demented retard who behaves like a hyperactive 5 year old, Marcus's protégé and my favorite character, excellent acting performance by Rataud. And then there's Lassalle (Philippe Laudenbach), a seemingly harmless elderly fellow, not quite obvious if very smart or insane, or both. The dynamics between the characters, who share the cell, is what keeps the film going and the audience enthralled to the screen.

All in all, the story, ending and small plot-twist are good, but not excellent. There's never a dull moment, but it's not the story that makes this film worthy, nor even the acting. It's, as mentioned, the characters and their dynamics. I'd highly recommend this film to anyone who's had their share of Horror films and wouldn't mind seeing something a little different, a little new, and while not a masterpiece - very impressive in my opinion!

"Maléfique" is an example of how a horror film can be effective with nothing more than a well-executed plot and a lot of heart. Its cast doesn't have recognized names, it doesn't have a big budget and it certainly lacks in the visual effects aspect; but it compensates all that with an intelligent and well-written script, an effective cast and the vision of a director focused more on telling the story than in delivering cheap thrills. Eric Valette may not be a well-know name yet, but with "Maléfique", his feature length debut, he proves he is at the level of contemporaries like Jeunet, Gans or Aja.

The film is the story of four prisoners in a cell, four different men with very different backgrounds but with one single goal: to get out. Carrère (Gérald Laroche) gets imprisoned after being declared guilty of a multi-millionaire fraud; his cell-mates, the violent Marcus (Clovis Cornillac), the intellectual Lassalle (Philippe Laudenbach) and the mentally challenged Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud), are all convicted for murder and give Carrère a cold welcome. Their personalities will clash as Carrère discovers an ancient book detailing how a former prisoner escaped using black magic.

Written by Alexandre Charlo and Franck Magnier, "Maléfique" is a great mix of dark fantasy and horror in a way very reminiscent of Clive Barker's stories. The movie's strongest point is the way it builds up the characters, they are all have very complex and different personalities and a lot of the tension and suspense comes from their constant clash of personalities. The story's supernatural element is very well-handled and overall gives the film the feeling of reading a Gothic novel. Despite being a movie about four men locked in a room, the movie never gets boring or tiresome and in fact, the isolation of the group increases the feeling of distrust, claustrophobia, and specially, paranoia.

Director Eric Valette makes a great use of atmosphere, mood and his cast to give life to the plot. Despite its obvious lack of budget, he has crafted a brilliant film that feels original, fresh and very attractive. His subtle and effective camera-work helps to make the film dynamic despite its single location, and the slow pace the film unfolds is excellent to create the heavy atmosphere of isolation and distrust the movie bases its plot. The very few displays of special effects are very well-done and Valette trades quantity for quality in the few but terrific scenes of gore.

The characters are what make this film work, and the cast definitely deserves some of the credit. Gérald Laroche is excellent as Carrère, a man at first sight innocent, but who hides a dark past. Philippe Laudenbach and Dimitri Rataud are very effective too, specially Rataud in his very demanding role. However, is Clovis Cornillac who steal the show with his performance as Marcus, a violent and disturbed man who deep inside only wants to be himself. The characters are superbly developed and the cast makes the most of them.

The movie is terrific, but it is not without its share of flaws. Of course, the most notorious one is its the low-budget. Some of the CGI-effects are a bit poor compared to the effective make-up and prosthetics used in other scenes, however, it is never too bad for it. Probably the bad thing about "Maléfique" is that it seems to lose some steam by the end when it focuses on the supernatural black magic rather than in the characters, not too much of a bad thing but the ending may seem weak from that point of view.

Anyways, "Maléfique" is another one of those great horror films coming out from France lately, and one that deserves to have more recognition. Valette is definitely a talent to follow as this modest (albeit complex) tale of the supernatural is prove enough of his abilities. Personally, this film is a new favorite. 8/10

If Maléfique is to believed, the French penal system is in need of some serious reform, the prison in this film seeing four men confined to a single, filthy, rat-infested cell, with white collar criminals forced to live alongside convicted murderers, sexual deviants and the criminally insane. Businessman Carrère (Gérald Laroche), whose wife has framed him for fraud, finds himself sharing with three such cell-mates: body-building transsexual Marcus (Clovis Cornillac), wife-murderer Lasalle (Philippe Laudenbach) and compulsive eater and all-round nut-job Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud), who consumed his baby sister. When this unlikely collection of characters find an old journal hidden behind a loose brick in the cell wall, and read the strange supernatural phrases contained within, they discover a possible means of escape—but at what cost?

Thematically, Maléfique borrows heavily from the Evil Dead series, Clive Barker's Hellraiser movies and the world of H.P. Lovecraft, with just a touch of Vincent Natali's cult sci-fi Cube for good measure; but although many elements will undoubtedly seem rather familiar to avid horror fans, the actual execution is about as original as it gets, director Eric Valette delivering arresting imagery, unpredictable WTF moments, and inventive special effects guaranteed to dumbfound, disgust and delight fans of the twisted and bizarre. While I can't say that I found this film as impeccable as many seem to have—I struggle with the basic set-up in which a non-violent criminal is incarcerated with the criminally insane—I have to admire the movie for going the extra mile to continually surprise the viewer.

See, you see, you modern films that need big budgets, big actors, great directors and so on!

This one relies on atmosphere alone, 4 main actors, if not 3, one dark room, one Evil Dead like book and that is it! It was quite a different experience, with plenty of disturbing moments, a lot of guessing going on and one excellent conclussion. If you look at the budget, it's quite small, so how did they do it?

Well if you want to make a horror and not a blockbuster, if finances aren't coming, you do what all great such directors did before, like Raimi, Romero, Carpenter...you make the most of what you got!

And boy did this movie deliver, with everything it had! Truly a bizzare production that always felt fresh and original, thus I highly recommend it.

Malefique is a great add on to the genre and it deserves a lot more recognition.

Cheers!

Well, magic works in mysterious ways. This movie about 4 prisoners, trying to escape with the help of spells, written by another prisoner centuries ago was a superb occult thriller with a surprising end and lots of suspense. Even if it had something of a theater-play (almost everything happens in the cell) it never got boring and it was acted very well. In the tradition of "Cube" you felt trapped with the Characters and even if they were criminal, you developed some sympathy with some of them, only to change your mind by the twists the story takes. Some happenings catched you off guard and there was always a touch of insanity in the air. Altogether intense and entertaining and as I didn't expect anything (a friend rented it), it was a positive surprise!

Almost a very good movie, but some spice is missing I saw this movie when it came out on rental and must say I though the same as now when I saw it again, I love the idea its a super idea actually for a good horror movie, but to bad it ended up in a low budget french small movie company , but also they did their absolute best to do something with it , and again we can see you can do good movies with no money

But I wish a big company could have take this story, rewrite some parts and then put in some money in this production, I think this could have been a fantastic movie

The beginning is not so good, but it grow fast and in the middle you start to be more and more hooked in it,, but just when the movie start to reach the limit from good to very good ,, something goes wrong and fades out to be just weird, but anyway, its a good movie.

A prison cell.Four prisoners-Carrere,a young company director accused of fraud,35 year old transsexual in the process of his transformation, Daisy,a 20 year-old mentally challenged idiot savant and Lassalle,a 60 year-old intellectual who murdered his wife.Behind a stone slab in the cell,mysteriously pulled loose,they discovered a book:the diary of a former prisoner,Danvers,who occupied the cell at the beginning of the century.The diary contains magic formulas that supposedly enable prisoners to escape."Malefique" is one of the creepiest and most intelligent horror films I have seen this year.The film has a grimy,shadowy feel influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft,which makes for a very creepy and unsettling atmosphere.There is a fair amount of gore involved with some imaginative and brutal death scenes and the characters of four prisoners are surprisingly well-developed.It's a shame that Eric Valette made truly horrible remake of "One Missed Call" after his stunning debut.9 out of 10.

French horror cinema has seen something of a revival over the last couple of years with great films such as Inside and Switchblade Romance bursting on to the scene. Maléfique preceded the revival just slightly, but stands head and shoulders over most modern horror titles and is surely one of the best French horror films ever made! Maléfique was obviously shot on a low budget, but this is made up for in far more ways than one by the originality of the film, and this in turn is complimented by the excellent writing and acting that ensure the film is a winner. The plot focuses on two main ideas; prison and black magic. The central character is a man named Carrère, sent to prison for fraud. He is put in a cell with three others; the quietly insane Lassalle, body building transvestite Marcus and his retarded boyfriend Daisy. After a short while in the cell together, they stumble upon a hiding place in the wall that contains an old journal. After translating part of it, they soon realise its magical powers and realise they may be able to use it to break through the prison walls.

Black Magic is a very interesting topic, and I'm actually quite surprised that there aren't more films based on it as there's so much scope for things to do with it. It's fair to say that Maléfique makes the best of it's assets as despite it's restraints, the film never actually feels restrained and manages to flow well throughout. Director Eric Valette provides a great atmosphere for the film; the fact that most of it takes place inside the central prison cell ensures that the film feels very claustrophobic, and this immensely benefits the central idea of the prisoners wanting to use magic to break out of the cell - it's very easy to get behind them! It's often said that the unknown is the thing that really frightens people, and this film proves that as the director ensures that we can never really be sure of exactly what is round the corner, and this helps to ensure that Maléfique actually does manage to be quite frightening! The film is memorable for a lot of reasons outside the central plot; the characters are all very interesting in their own way and the fact that the book itself almost takes on its own character is very well done. Anyone worried that the film won't deliver by the end won't be disappointed either as the ending both makes sense and manages to be quite horrifying! Overall, Maléfique is a truly great horror film and one of the best of the decade - HIGHLY recommended viewing!

In the claustrophobic environment of a prison facility four wretched inmates discover the diary of Charles Danvier (Geoffrey Carey), a man famed for escaping the prison through the use of dark occultism. Carrère (Gérald Laroche) conscientiously committing fraud at his company is newly admitted to the cell and despite his intense interest in the memoir has little interest in escaping, still awaiting his wife to post bail. Transsexual Marcus (Clovis Cornillac) and his demented protégé Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud), prone to eating everything including watches. The fourth party is the reclusive and utterly passive, but well versed Lassalle (Philippe Laudenbach), committed for murdering his wife during breakfast. When incantations found in the dilapidated book turn out to have real power, the group slowly becomes enticed by the possibility of escaping prison through supernatural means...

Despite several gory scenes "Malefique" must be kept apart, due to theme as well as form, from the brutally visceral new wave of French horror movies, such as "High Tension" or "Inside", owing its allegiance more to "Hellraiser" or "Warlock". In a world of mysticism somewhat recognisable with organically malevolent magic collapsing on weaknesses of characters, enticing into self-inflicted torture and pain. "Malefique" equally well could be perceived as part of the universe of Cenobites, as the existence of evil has a deceptively analogous similarity.

Unlike however many of the "Hellraiser" sequels or contemporary French horror films the movie is soundly structured around a well-construed premise with the claustrophobic confines imbuing a sense of inevitability, strongly wrapped around four well-conceived, albeit outlandish characters. Although seemingly treading down recognisable dramatic corridors and using reclycable clichés "Malefique" does come out honest and powerful, a large part thanks to the the cast fronted by a rigid and conceited Carey. Ending on a high with a welcome twist, which may not invite rapturous applause, the end scene should create a vile smirk on the faces of its satisfied audience.