Lived In!
On her first day as a care giver to the elderly, Lucie Klavel (Chloé Coulloud) is taken to the run down mansion where an elderly woman resides in a coma, kept alive by her life support machine having requested to be allowed to die in her home. And Lucie soon learns that this elderly woman is Madam Jessel (Marie-Claude Pietragalla) a once famous dance teacher who is said to have hidden her treasures somewhere in the decaying mansion. With issues of her own and egged on by her friends William (Félix Moati) and Ben (Jérémy Kapone), they return to the home of Madam Jessel late at night to find her treasure only to release a whole host of supernatural horrors which will change Lucie's life for ever.
"Slow, so slow" were the words which I kept on jotting down as I watched "Livid", a French horror movie from directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. And in fairness there is nothing wrong with that as during this slowness the character of Lucie is created and we become aware of her back story, her problems, her friends and more importantly get to like her as she seems a decent enough person lead astray by her boyfriend and his brother. She also has two tone eyes which also makes her intriguing and strangely attractive.
What this slowness also does is make us read between the lines and look for some sort of clue as to where "Livid" is going to lead, what sort of horror awaits us once all the build up is dealt with. It's not that Bustillo and Maury create an exhilarating atmosphere during this build up but one which makes us alert to the potential that this could go in all sorts of directions.
But then there is the horror side of "Livid" which in fairness starts earlier as we become aware of what happened to Lucie's mum but the main horror part, the supernatural side as Lucie, William and Ben sneak in to the mansion is strange. Now on one level I like it because we have classic frights, things which break the silence and make you jump but then we also get a lot of crazy which is never truly explained. Now either this was trying to be a super intelligent horror and force the audience to make their own judgements through the clues or Bustillo and Maury had some good ideas for a horror element but didn't know how to work them together into a coherent story which provides answers so didn't bother trying. Unfortunately it lets the movie down as even those looking just for scares will want some sort of rhyme and reason behind it all.
What this all boils down to is that "Livid" whilst drawing you in and delivering some horror lets the audience down by never full explaining what is going on. For those needing excitement from the word go "Livid" is not the movie for you but for those who enjoy atmosphere this has it in abundance.
