‘The Soul Eater’ Review – This Horror Procedural Is Sparing Yet Devastating

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• Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury step away from their horror-first roots.
• Achieves a sustainable stage of procedural thrills.
• Lacks a little bit of narrative tightness, however nonetheless succeeds as a suspenseful thriller.

Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have pushed cinematic daggers into our hearts for over a decade. Whether or not you level at Inside, Livid, Among the many Residing, etcetera, the duo conceptualizes from a nicely of prolific darkness. Their newest function, The Soul Eater, doesn’t lack any of that signature gut-shredding terribleness. It’s the least horror-forward of their catalog up to now, but even so, blends unsettling folkloric imagery right into a procedural thriller that’s not fairly Longlegs or Megalomaniac, however will nonetheless go away your soul wounded and rotten by the point the credit roll.

What Is ‘The Soul Eater’ About?

Two out-of-town investigators discover themselves unlikely companions within the distant French mountain city of Roquenoir. Commander Elizabeth Guardiano (Virginie Ledoyen) and Captain of the Gendarmerie Franck De Rolan (Paul Hamy) butt heads early, making a minor rivalry as they chase their very own instincts. As Roquenoir’s sleepy facade provides option to extra sinister discoveries, Guardiano and De Rolan understand that cooperation will get them a lot additional. Townsfolk converse of an previous city legend about “The Soul Eater,” shrouding the case in supernatural thriller. May a horned woodland entity be concentrating on Roquenoir’s youth?

Bustillo and Maury are at their most easy with The Soul Eater, closest to, however nonetheless lightyears away from the fable-like Furious. Shows are one thing like The Snowman (however higher) or The Remedy (however worse), perhaps somewhat Kill List, the place “horror” is performed quick and free. That is Bustillo and Maury at their most grounded, feeding off the scary deviance of on a regular basis society. It’s a extra routine exploration of inhumane atrocities than I’d anticipate from the New French Extremity pillars, however perhaps that’s by design. Bustillo and Maury work exterior their ordinary morbid imaginations to show they will ship competent style chills and not using a gore-slathered bag of tips.

Nonetheless, that’s to not discredit the impactful violence that finds its approach onto the display screen. Guardiano and De Rolan assess crime scenes smeared with blood on each wall. Corpses are slashed, bitten, and punctured into oblivion. Bustillo and Maury use their dismal portrayals of violence to reveal the severity of Roquenoir’s on-the-loose maniac, as a result of if that is what they’re doing to grownup victims, we don’t wish to take into consideration what’s grow to be of the lacking youngsters. The Soul Eater operates like Seven in how Guardiano and De Rolan expose audiences to unpleasant mutilation on the job, juxtaposed in opposition to Roquenoir’s silent-but-deadly presence. It’s when Bustillo and Maury really feel at their most comfy.

‘The Soul Eater’ Can Get a Little Misplaced

Alas, The Soul Eater loses itself in a tangled net of wood totems and devilish imagery. Early glimpses of the “Soul Eater” generally is a symptomatic hallucination to shock, meant to stay unclear. Background data means we mistrust Guardiano and De Rolan at factors, however it interferes ever-so-slightly with procedural momentum. There’s a spiritual undertone as Roquenoir locals proceed to lash out in abhorrently ruthless methods, and whereas the third act’s triumphant reveal is the stuff of nightmares, conspiratorial circumstances play with coincidental weightlessness. Cinematography and different technical components are all cleanly polished, however Annelyse Batrel and Ludovic Lefebvre’s screenplay — based mostly on Alexis Laipsker’s novel The Soul Eater (aka Le mangeur d’âmes) — will get momentarily misplaced in its suspense-first storytelling. The feel and appear of every thing seize malevolence in a bottle, even when getting there by way of harrowing performances wraps issues up too neatly.

The Soul Eater is under no circumstances an offense to horror procedurals. Bustillo and Maury are clearly directing another person’s script (derogatory), however they nonetheless smuggle their signature dread-shellacked model in wherever potential. Virginie Ledoyen and Paul Hamy anchor a revolting string of murders in a ho-hum city that’s descended into insurmountable tragedy, pushing ahead an investigation that by no means sabotages icky pressure. It’s not what I used to be anticipating from Bustillo and Maury, but proves their abilities exterior prior consolation zones. To not say there’s something comfy about stealing infants from wombs and vampire ballerinas — “normalcy” is a wierd look on the dynamic collaborators.

The Soul Eater had its North American Premiere on the Fantasia Worldwide Movie Competition.