Fabrice Du Welz directs Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer and Philippe Nahon in this French horror about a travelling singer who breaks down near the wrong inn.

A slippery blend of folk horror fairy tale and New French Extremity. Yes, it does tumble into torture porn in the final third but because it has paranoia and masculine ick in its palette too the nasty violence isn’t prolonged awkwardly. It feels like a culmination and escalation of where this mindfuck mystery has ultimately been headed. In many ways this is the closest the French have gotten to make something as abjectly strange and curious as The Wicker Man. Jackie Berroyer is particularly good as the dishonestly genial auberge owner.

8

Perfect Double Bill: I Stand Alone (1998)