French filmmakers Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury first cut into the horror scene with their vicious highlight of the New French Extremity movement, INSIDE (2007). Known for bleak and bloody films, their latest, THE SOUL EATER — having just played at the Fantasia Film Festival — maintains the duo’s trademarks, though with a plodding premise that’s more of a burn than their fans are used to.
Based on the novel by Alexis Laipsker, THE SOUL EATER follows homicide detective, Commander Elizabeth Guardiano (Virginie Ledoyen) and Department of Alarming Disappearances investigator, Franck de Rolan (Paul Hamy). Grisly circumstances bring them together when a couple is found brutally slaughtered in their home, with no clues to go on except for their child’s utterance of a legendary creature known as The Soul Eater. Turns out, the couple’s white van connects them to a string of missing children cases that Franck is hot on the tail of. Wary about having any kind of partner, Elizabeth bands together with the determined investigator to solve the crimes and uncover the monstrous horror that links them.
What often sets viewers on edge early with the work of Bustillo and Maury comes from their common theme of dying towns and the violence against children that occurs within them. The gruesome crime scene that opens the film has brought Elizabeth and Franck to the mountain village of Roquenoir. Soaked in a dreary, gray color palette, it is a place as quiet as a graveyard, with an understaffed police force ill-equipped to handle the murders suddenly occurring all around them. The grim tone and brutally eviscerated bodies recall the likes of Fincher’s SE7EN or ZODIAC, but with a supernatural tinge in the guise of The Soul Eater, a town legend believed to wear the skin of loved ones and hide the monster inside. Its shadow lurks in the background of each frame, found in drawings or carvings left by children and hanging on the lips of frightened townspeople.
Also akin to the procedural thriller high mark that is Fincher’s classic are two cops with conflicting personalities. Specializing in murder and with her own dark history, Elizabeth approaches the work with hardnosed determination, enhanced by a stony performance from Ledoyen that assures the audience she is a woman who gets things done. Franck, meanwhile, takes a softer approach. A gentle man who takes his duty of returning lost children to heart, Hamy’s grief-stricken portrayal adds a sad desperation to the character that shatters the soul. Something the unlikely pair does have in common is the knowledge that the missing children are most likely dead, a cloud that hangs over the film from beginning to end. Engaging as both Ledoyen and Hamy are, though, THE SOUL EATER remains flat outside of a few key moments, often keeping the audience too much at a distance while playing secrets close to the vest.
Bustillo and Maury usually handle writing duties — their 2017 sequel LEATHERFACE being an exception — but the script here is adapted for the screen by Annelyse Batrel and Ludovic Lefebvre, with one notable difference between THE SOUL EATER and previous outings from the filmmakers: Pacing. Known for fast-paced and grisly horror, THE SOUL EATER acts as a step out of the filmmakers’ comfort zone with a brooding tale reaching almost two hours in length. This is the first time Bustillo and Maury have delivered a film over ninety minutes, and I only mention it because their struggle to maintain momentum can be felt often. Like most procedurals, the film takes its time to navigate a town full of mystery. But those interested in The Soul Eater itself will find themselves disappointed as the central narrative relegates it to the backdrop while the protagonists encounter far less interesting pieces of the puzzle. Rather than delve into the creature itself, the filmmakers are more interested in exploring the evil of humanity and the hopelessness of a cruel world where innocent children are punished thanks to the inability of adults to listen to them. Children are snuck away from right underneath the noses of authority, representative of a world that doesn’t pay enough attention to them. What starts off as an intriguing monster movie devolves into just another police procedural that we’ve seen countless times since the nineties.
THE SOUL EATER is still a Bustillo and Maury film, and it isn’t without its punches, though I’d argue it doesn’t hit nearly as hard as other entries in the duo’s filmography. Tonally bleak as it is, there’s a sense that the filmmakers have taken note of past criticisms, offering something a bit more narratively satisfying than usual. A departure from what we’re used to with the filmmakers, Bustillo and Maury’s latest takes audiences on a steady, somber journey that focuses less on heart-stopping thrills and more on a reflection of the inherent responsibility we have towards children. The need to protect them. The devastation when we fail to do so. And the way that failure can leave us walking the Earth like ghosts, haunted forever by the pain of it all.
3/5.
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Tags: Alexandre Bustillo, Alexis Laipsker, Annelyse Batrel, Chloé Coulloud, Crime, Fantasia Film Festival, France, Horror, Julien Maury, Ludovic Lefebvre, Malik Zidi, Matt Konopka, Paul Hamy, Raphaël Gesqua, Sandrine Bonnaire, Simon Roca, Virginie Ledoyen
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