Frontier(s) (Frontière(s)) (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of TV Spots Trailer Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	103:48
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (51:35)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Xavier Gens
Studio Distributor	Canal+ Madman Entertainment	Starring	Karina Testa Aurélien Wiik Patrick Ligardes David Saracino Maud Forget Samuel Le Bihan Chems Dahmani Amélie Daure Estelle Lefébure Rosine Favey Adel Bencherif
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Jean-Pierre Taieb

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Imagine The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (either version), only it is set on the French border to Switzerland and there is no chainsaw per-se, instead a wide array of icky weapons that lead to the same sort of gory excesses. A veil of Nazi eugenics is thrown in to justify the existence of it's freaks and the victims have a different back-story, but for the greater part that image sums up Frontiere(s). At least it is an entertaining knock-off.

    After a messy escape following a robbery, a group of four twenty-something year old thugs head for the border in two vehicles. The first pair arrive at a secluded B&B ahead of the second, and proceed to get their rocks off before the inbred locals attempt to get them ready for their meat cellar. The second pair arrive to a similar reception, only one of them (the only lass in the group) is chosen to marry into "the family" before the film's final bloodshed.

    Frontiere(s) is well shot, well paced and features some great, particularly gruesome, physical effects (many of which likely push the limits of the R classification). It is entertaining throughout, although it adds nothing new to the genre. Genre fans will definitely get a kick out of this one.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video is a little dark (although that suits the film), but is otherwise very good. The image is sharp and features a gritty, grainy look that suits the film. The film's colour palette accentuates the browns and yellows, adding to the grimy look of the affair. Blacks are a little crushed in the image, and a little more shadow detail would be welcome, although this does not spoil the film.

    There is no sign of compression-related artefacts or film artefacts in the video.

    This is an RSDL disc with an unnoticeable layer change at 51:35.

    The film features bold yellow English subtitles that do a good job or translating the meaning of the French dialogue rather than a purely literal translation.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features a single French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) audio track.

    The dialogue is clear and at a good level in the mix. The audio appears to be well synchronised to the video.

    The film features a clanky, grim score that makes good use of orchestral and industrial noises to fit the mood.

    The surrounds are used aggressively throughout the film, which adds a lot of depth to the visceral visuals. The subwoofer is used extensively and diversely, adding some real balls to the mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Featurette - Making Of (16:20)

    A decent "making of" featurette, comprised entirely of fairly self explanatory on-set footage and comparisons between raw footage and finished effects footage. This featurette does an excellent job of breaking down how many of the key visual effects in the film were put together (a would-be splatter filmmaker's delight) as well as how a few of the physical action scenes were shot.

TV Spots

    Four short TV spots for the film.

Theatrical Trailer

    A fairly run-of-the-mill theatrical trailer for the film.

Stills Gallery

    An unnecessary set of 15 screen grabs from the film

Madman Trailers

    Trailers for three other Madman horror releases follow an unnecessary anti-piracy trailer.

    The Region 1 edition of Frontiere(s) lacks any extra features (save for trailers for other films). The Region 4 edition is identical to the UK Region 2 edition, except that the pointless stills gallery on the Region 4 edition is absent on the Region 2 edition.

    A well made, particularly gruesome, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre clone from France. Certain to please genre fans, although it really adds nothing substantial to the genre.

    Video and audio are very good. The extras are relatively limited but well worthwhile, particularly the great "making of".

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall