Mal?fique (France, 2002)


IMDB

Directed by Eric Valette

Genre: Fantasy / Horror

REVIEW - ARROW

Plot
Four very different inmates are sharing one cell in a French prison. When they find a mysterious book of occult spells, they try to use its shaky magic to escape. Things don?t go as planned. Like...at all! No, really?like AT ALL! YIPPEE!

The Lowdown:
I love surprises and when I sat down to watch the French horror flick ?Malefique?, I knew absolutely nothing about it and had zero expectations in regards to what it would deliver. Well, give this dog a bone, some ?Kibbles? and a bitch in heat. The lack of funds definitely worked in this film?s favor since the director and screenwriters (Alexandre Charlot et Franck Magnier) had to be more inventive to compensate and therein, delivered a pretty strong fear show.

"Malefique" is an insanely engrossing, deliciously mysterious and refreshingly mature treat. What really made it happen for me though were, first and foremost, the characters that populated this cell. Backed by strong dialogue, rock-solid characterization and stellar acting, the players and the interaction between them consumed me for a buck and a half. Props go out to all for their expert displays, but especially to Gerard Laroche (Carrere) for giving one hell of a captivating performance. I could not take my eyes off the man every time he was on-screen. Talk about intense!

The film?s horror tricks also stimulated me in the right way. Although some of the fear devices found here were somewhat familiar, they were well executed and got the intended reactions out of me. Another plus is that I really had no idea as to where this storyline was going with unpredictable plot turns, left and right. That?s freaking rare for me! It felt awesome "not" to know! The screenwriters should give me their home addresses so I can snail mail them a baguette of bread, a bottle of wine, an issue of Swank magazine and a pack of smokes. They did a bang-on job. I felt so anxious throughout this movie and was taken for genre loop-the-loops more than once.

Vibe-wise, the pace of the flick was slow, but craftman like in its rhythms. It just kept pulling me in deeper and deeper to imminently engulf me whole. I also totally grooved on the flick?s swaying claustrophobic nature. Ninety eight percent of this tale was set in one jail cell and it so worked. With the setting being supported by the old school and subtle directing style, I was beyond horror charmed! You can?t go wrong with creepy slow cam movements, brilliant use of silences and a thick spread of dread-filled atmosphere buttered about. Lastly, I appreciated this film's restraint use of CGI and gore. The grounded nature of the flick was never negated and the tone always remained realistic-- even when the supernatural scenarios were a little ?out there?.

On a negative note, the character of Paquerette, which was well interpreted (maybe too well) by Dimitri Rateau, sadly got on my nerves more than a yapping poodle humping my leg. You know the type...he acts like a petulant child, eats everything in sight, screams all the time and is just an all-around freaking pain in the ass (I once dated a girl exactly like that...it lasted half a day). I wanted to snap his little neck like a celery stick by frame one. But my biggest peeve was where the flick eventually wound up going for its last block. Taking into account its originality to that point, the ?Wishmaster?-like heavy finale kind of let me down. I expected something more novel after everything I went through, something a little "left field" and unconventional for the conclusion.

Having said that, "Malefique" was an overall very fulfilling sit-down and another well-placed jab in the gut for the French horror scene. You want classy, intelligent, well-written and mucho involving? Enter this jail cell and swallow the key...you won?t want to leave!



ed2K: ed2k: Malefique.FRENCH.DVDRip.XViD-SNiPERS.shared.by.ULTEAM.avi  [675.19 Mb] [Stats]

Subs: ed2k: MALEFIQUE_By_Ti_Mat_BUP_IFO_VOB.rar  [69.7 Kb] [Stats]
[NOTE: These are the only Subs I've managed to find so far. Not yet d/loaded - so I don't know if the VOB contains Eng Subs. Fingers Crossed]

[ Add all 2 links to your ed2k client ]

Sounds tempting *click*. Thanks!

Wowsers!!!
This movie looks promising. I'm on it!!!
Thanx Rotten Popcorn.

(Keeping fingers crossed for english subtitles)

GREAT!! i forgot about this one! saw the trailer a while ago and it looks nice.... i love it when things we wanted appear when least expected thanks a lot

I just wanted to request it and now its here, tx RotPop

Subtitle file doesn't seem to have any subtitle, I scanned via SubRip but it couldn't find any.

IFO VOB and BUP are the small files on DVDs, that rar is obviously from a DVD-r release and not actually subs

Yeah, I d/loaded the rar right now, and noticed...

This SUXXX!!!

The DVD was released in France a few weeks ago and it contains no subs at all. Not even French ones. So I guess you'll have to wait for a foreign edition of it to get subs

Any news on this one? I'd love to see it.

*bump*

Hey, don't we have any native speakers of French on here. Bonnie, I'm talking to you.

heheheh how beautiful is the art of subtlety

I wouldn't mind creating subs if I knew how to do it .... Any advice guys ??!!

the easy way is this: if there are other subs available (say, french, italian, etc.) all you have to do is watch the movie and then plug in the english translations at the appropriate locations -- i.e. at appropriate times. all you would need is to reference your media player for the time when the dialogue was spoken and translate it in the sub file. you can open your sub file with notepad or any other small app, then save and voila!

The other option is to just open any .srt file and redo the timing as you go. Since you have the skill to do the translatiing, you should try and get soemone else to do the timing. Since there are more and more good French horror movies coming out, you should be able to find someone here who can help with that.
Start a french horror subbing group with one or more people on this forum.
@mascareiro Who's got time for sublety? I save that for my writing.

I'm afraid there are not so many French horror flicks on their way, but sure I wouldn't mind doing translations if anyone feels like doing the timing.
BTW I enqueued the movie so that if no one feels charitable enough to waste his time with me, I'll see what I can do by myself

Bonnie_Parker
Servant Of The Dead Donkeys

your work will be prizeless

Any more news on this one?

I've done half of the subs now but it's take very much time to do. So leave me some time I have a lot to do right now with my thesis to finish and my workk at the cinema, so I only do it in my free time, which means ... well ... late at night or on week ends But that should be done within a week or 2.