Review - The Pack (La Meute)

Normally after watching a new wave French horror film I am ready with bucket full of praise to shower the film in, this however is not the case with The Pack. That is not to say that The Pack is a bad film, just a whole bunch of ideas crammed into a film, as is generally the case, some stuff sticks, some stuff doesn't.

The story goes like this - In the middle of a snowy no man's land, Charlotte picks up Max, a hitchhiker; they stop in a truck-stop restaurant, and when Max doesn't come back from the bathroom, Charlotte starts looking for him in vain. She decides to return during the night...

When I first started watching this I thought oh ok, it's going to be one of those back water, bloodthristy hick type films...and for a little while it was. Then about the 40 minute mark - ghouls started crawling out from the ground, which totally turned the film into a creature feature. So do the the two sub genres mash well? No. All of the survival horror from the first half hour is lost, that icky feeling of helplessness evaporates into an all out battle and the film suffers for it.

Caged Heat: Farm Edition

Lots has been said about the twist ending in The Pack - personally I didn't think it was a twist ending at all, it was more like a double bluff and as such it didn't make or break the film.

The film does have loads of atmosphere and is beautifully filmed but like corn flakes and vodka the film's genre mesh doesn't go together well.