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AMONG THE LIVING

THREE DELINQUENTS COME ACROSS A CRIME SCENE



★★★★☆ (Worth the Watch)

Director: Julien Maury, Alexandre Bustillo

2014


If you haven’t had a nightmare recently, might I suggest Among the Living (Aux yeux des vivants), a simple tale of three French juvenile delinquents, who are at the wrong place at the wrong time. This is an understatement. When these boys skip school one afternoon and make their way to an abandoned film studio in the woods, the following events are so violent, so terrifying, that you will lock your doggie door tonight before you go to bed. Among the Living brilliantly reshapes Texas Chainsaw Massacre and home invasion horror into a both realistic and surreal story of survival where no one at any age is safe. There’s nothing scarier than knowing your youth cannot protect you from a monster bent on mindless torture. This is the anti-It.



Victor (Théo Fernandez) is our hero, and apparently a waste of space, according to his teacher. It’s easy to see why adults are frustrated with him and his buddies Tom (Zacharie Chasseriaud) and nerdy Dan (Damien Ferdel). They skip school, set fires, and teeter on the edge of brutality. Their freedom can be exhilarating, though. Before we find out why the boys do what they do, they run off into the woods around the village to play, and the movie sets up the slow, relaxing feel of childhood before the shoe drops. The boys float happily in a boat on placid waters until they notice something strange going on near Blackwood, an old film studio emptied out years ago after a few kids were killed during a movie shoot. While snooping around, they’re witnesses to a crime, and this one time, when they try to do the right thing, it backfires in horrific and unforeseen ways. Each of these young actors is so good, I never felt the wall of cinema between us.


The big theme of Among the Living, from top to bottom, is an argument of nature vs. nurture. Our troublemaking teens have awful backstories…our villain was introduced to murder in his childhood. Victor lost his father to cancer and is now being raised by his dope-smoking mom and idiot (boy, does this come into play) but kind stepfather. Dan has rich parents who don’t have time for him, and Tom is physically abused by his single father, who works at the gas station. Each boy has a very different upbringing, but the neglect is all the same. Then there’s the villain, who I don’t want to talk about too much to avoid spoilers. Though there’s a bad seed element to the first few scenes, it’s obvious that his caretaker is adding fuel to the fire. With that in mind, is the killer really at fault here?


“THERE’S NOTHING SCARIER THAN KNOWING YOUR YOUTH CANNOT PROTECT YOU FROM A MONSTER BENT ON MINDLESS TORTURE. THIS IS THE ANTI-IT.”

I hate bringing up It again, but Among the Living feels like everything the Stephen King adaptation should have been. If you're a cinephile who wanted higher stakes in It, I think you’ll love Among the Living, but fair warning: in this story, youngsters die in one of the most blood-chilling murder sprees in any film. A few hiccups do occur at the end. You might laugh when you watch people who do laundry all the time have trouble opening a dryer—What is this strange device?! During the big reveal of a dying villain, there was a moment where the director awkwardly wanted us to feel sorry for him. No dice. And if you’re looking for answers or exposition, you’ll be as frustrated as I was. What’s with the tattoo on the head? What’s with the gas mask? I want more, and I guess that’s the sign of a good film, for better or worse. I do have a question for you, though. Did you check under your bed?





GENRES: Atmospheric, Monster/Creature, Teens in Peril


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