Calvaire (AKA Calvary, also known as The Ordeal) is a 2004 psychological horror film directed by Fabrice Du Welz, starring Laurent Lucas, Philippe Nahon and Jackie Berroyer. It was Fabrice Du Welz's first full-length film. On Christmas eve, charmingly mediocre Marc's van breaks down in a deserted marshy region. He takes refuge in an inn run by a hospitable but creepy innkeeper who offers to repair the van. The next morning the innkeeper suddenly becomes paranoid and aggressive, warning Marc not to go into the nearby village.
Right off the bat, things are weird in this one. We open on a really long Joker-esqe shot of him doing his makeup in the mirror, and the unsettling tone it establishes really sticks around. Despite this movie, having a few comedic moments of tense laughter, the majority of this movie feels like listening to a record on half speed. Like a slowly unravelling nightmare you want to run away from, but you find yourself paralyzed. This movie sort of plays out like MISERY, as it becomes increasingly clear that this whack-job weirdo isn't going to let him leave anytime soon. I've seen plenty of motives for this kind of thing from cannibalism, cult shit, neo-nazis, and Even just for a good old-fashioned f*** around, this movie definitely has one of the most bizarre motives I've seen in a while.
Originally, Fabrice du Welz idea was to portray two male characters, one of whom would mistake the other one for his wife. If you are a little confused about exactly what that means, let me spell it out for you. My man spent three years trying to write a movie, specifically about a man who abducts and tortures another man to be his replacement wife. Is now a good time to mention that this movie falls under the new French extreme genre? Yeah, this one's real f***** up...
The longer you watch this movie, the more miserable and yucky you will feel. It's a movie that really effectively captures the feeling of going crazy, never really giving you any glimpse of hope that isn't pretty quickly Yanked away in a soul-crushing fashion. It's pretty bizarre that this is somebody's first film, considering just how well-directed, paced, and acted this whole thing is. It gets damn near Lynchian at points, in a really surprised, I've never heard anyone talk about this movie before.
this movie currently has a rating of 46% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.7/10 based on 26 reviews. The site's consensus states that the film "has a certain amount of grim potential, but loses effectiveness by too often mistaking disturbing gore for genuine horror". On Metacritic, the film has a more favourable score of 52 based on 12 reviews.
Sounds like just about everywhere you look online, this movie's just a little bit underrated. I'm sure the ending doesn't help
8/10
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