Up this week, more movies from across the pond. Flesh eating ghouls, people being hunted through the wilderness and foul-mouthed slackers graced the screen.

THE PACK (2010 – France) “La Meute” is another entry in the wave of French horror. We are first introduced to Charlotte (Émilie Dequenne), a very rough around the edges type of girl, who picks up a hitchhiker named Max (Benjamin Biolay). He’s a seedy sort of character and he leads Charlotte to an even seedier truck-stop. They meet the owner La Spack (Yolande Moreau) who has plans for Charlotte. She’s always in need for a fresh supply of flesh and blood for “the pack”, a group of ghouls who rise from the ground to feast. Turns out Max is her son and he helps do the “grocery shopping” by luring people to their trap. Throw in a wacked out cop played by Philippe Nahon (High Tension, I Stand Alone), and a lunatic motorcycle gang and you have a dark twisted flick. I really enjoyed this movie. The characters were all people you’d never want to meet but it worked well for the movie’s dark and eccentric tone. La Spack was an evil, cackling brute of a woman and very menacing. I loved Franck Richard’s direction. The camera glided around the dank and dirty sets. There’s no jarring, “found footage” camera work. The color pallette was dark and filled with shadows.
Once the ghouls rise from the ground you are in for a treat. It was like a page taken from a Tales from the Crypt magazine. The ghouls are awesome looking and in some scenes they shamble towards their victims with the full moon as a backdrop. Awesome visuals! “The Pack” is a great movie to throw in your player at the stroke of midnight. Available from Bloody-Disgusting Selects.

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE (2011 – UK) The Scottish Highlands are the breathtaking backdrop for this fast paced thriller. Five mountaineers are hiking and climbing through the wilderness. Their peaceful excursion is shattered when they hear cries drifting on the wind. The cries of a child. It leads them to a breathing pipe sticking up out of the ground. They brush dirt and leaves aside to reveal a door. They discover a little girl is trapped underground in a wooden room. With nothing but the breathing pipe and water, the little girl is weak and afraid. She is Serbian and they cannot understand her words. Alison (Melissa George) and the rest of her companions begin their trek back to civilization to take the girl to the police. That begins their nightmare as they are hunted down by mysterious assailants that aren’t too happy about them helping the little girl. To tell you anymore would spoil the intense adventure that unfolds for the remaining running time. Along the way there are several punches to the gut and by the end of the movie you will be exhausted. Beautiful cinematography, exciting mountain climbing action, startling violence and great performances are all wrapped up into one thrilling movie experience. Highly recommended. Available from IFC Midnight.

NEW KIDS TURBO (2010 – Netherlands) We’ll file this under “wild and weird”. Five yahoos get fired from their jobs and so they decide they are going to quit paying for things. They steal food and enormous quantities of beer. They are wreckless and idiotic, causing the police to send for the Ministry of Defense to put a stop to them. It all leads to a massive shoot out in the normally quiet village of Maaskantje. Well, I kinda liked this movie. Maybe because it was foreign and I didn’t know who the actors were. New Kids is a Dutch comedy sketch show featuring a group of rowdy foul-mouthed youths. Think a group of real life Beavis and Buttheads revved up on turbo juice. Hearing them shout obsentities in another language is funny. Their outfits and hairdos are fun; they look like retro gangsta rappers with mullets. I loved the hyper techno songs that were used as the soundtrack. Also, shock is the name of the game here. The humor was vulgar and very “un-PC”. There’s some gore thrown around during some of the film’s violence but it’s played for laughs. Maybe I’m getting old but the movie really went out of it’s way to be offensive and I didn’t care for some of it. I wanted to watch this because I’m anticipating the sequel “New Kids Nitro” in which this group of morons battle zombies. The trailer for that one looks cool. Kut!