Le Locataire aka The Tenant - Roman Polanski - France - (1976)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074811/

Plot from Imdb: "In Paris, the shy bureaucrat Trelkovsky rents an old apartment without bathroom where the previous tenant, the Egyptologist Simone Choule, committed suicide. The unfriendly concierge (Shelley Winters) and the tough landlord Mr. Zy establish stringent rules of behavior and Trekovsky feels ridden by his neighbors. Meanwhile he visits Simone in the hospital and befriends her girlfriend Stella. After the death of Simone, Trekovsky feels obsessed for her and believes his landlord and neighbors are plotting a scheme to force him to also commit suicide."

Forget "Gai Paris" and welcome to "Grey Paris". For all the naive fans of the french capital of Love, this movie is a supreme antidote. Based on a novel by Roland Topor (an amazing illustrator and writer, also from polish origins, he collaborated on the great 1973's animated feature "Fantastic Planet" from René Laloux),  set in a classic historical building of Paris,  under the constant watch and disapprobation of his neighbors, the main character of this movie reflects very well the paranoia of Roman Polanski himself., at that time of his life (just after he flew from the US to avoid being jailed again). Apparently, I read somewhere that Polanski hates this movie now, because it became somehow of a "art movie". I don't see it that way. I think it's a mesmerizing tale of "estrangement", that anybody who had lived in a foreign place or country can related to. The oppressive mental disturbance of Trelkovsky is amazingly shown by subtle techniques (the "off scale" sets of the flat that make Trelkovky smaller or that create forced perspectives) and by the great acting of Polanski himself. The erotic tension of Isabelle Adjani character, the supporting roles of Terklosky co-workers and neighbors are really adding to the feeling of being lost. Some very dark moments of humor helps breathing a little but it comes with tremendous violence and finally gets you even deeper into the darkness. Sucked into identification and depression, the main character has no choice but to close the infernal circle of a doomed destiny.  Great masterpiece from a great director. Another must-see.

Trailer:

Fritt vilt aka Cold Prey - Roar Uthaug - Norway - (2006)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808276/

Plot by Imdb: "While snowboarding in the ice mountains with Jannicke, her boyfriend Eirik, Mikail and his girlfriend Ingunn, Morten Tobias has an accident and breaks his leg. His friends seek shelter for the night and find an abandoned hotel in the middle of nowhere. They discover that the hotel was closed in 1975 when the son of the owners vanished in the mountains. However on the next morning they find that they are trapped in the hotel with a psychopath killer, and they have to protect themselves trying to survive"

Excellent old fashion Slasher that uses the codes of the genre to re-introduce some brutal reality to the "seen a million time" story of a mysterious psycho-killer on a murder rampage. The set is highly original (if you're not Norwegian) and the technical aspect of it all is clearly perfectly handled. The director has indeed understood perfectly that the restraints of the genre are its force, the more you restrain yourself from the pleasure of making "iconic" images, the more likely you are to create some new original ones.  Cold Prey is actually doing that, creating a great original boogieman and putting its adolescent cast in terrible and almost realistic situations.  As classic as it can be, Cold Prey really delivers, where many fails. I liked it very much, as I did with it's sequel ("Fritt Vilt 2 " aka "Cold Prey 2") that, unfortunately, mimics a little too much Rick Rosenthal "Halloween II".
Enjoy this Nordic scare and remember to put a scarf on or you will soon cough blood, my friend.

Trailer:

A l'intérieur - Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury - France - (2007)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0856288/

Plot from Imdb: "Four months after the death of her husband, a woman on the brink of motherhood is tormented in her home by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby."

That's what I call a hardcore old-school horror movie ! Well done and so brutal that some scenes might be  unbearable to watch for some unwarned viewers, this bloody french flix is good news: way better than its predecessors ("Frontières", "Sheitan", etc...), it shows that simple genre movie can be done in France and done efficiently, by fans of the genre (one of the co-director used to work for Mad Movies, THE genre movies magazine in the country).  The movie revolves around a simple plot with a simple mission: oppress you with it claustrophobic atmosphere and then make you shivers from fright with it crude and brutal violence.  And it does well its job, even if there's nothing new for the horror fan. Apart some minor flaws (some supporting actors are lame (the cops) as usual in French film, some scene are so full of references that it's difficult to judge them impartially), this is a good gory movie and you should consider it. Avoid at all cost if you're pregnant, it might result in a huge trauma. Bon appétit.

Trailer:

Ong bak 3 - Trailer

Look mystical and brutal: excellent !