Here one for the gore fans. A New French Extremity film that pits a group of hapless Muslim hooligans against a family of cannibal Nazis in Texas Chainsaw Massacre style free-for-all.

And it does it all with a straight face.

Yes, it’s time to review Xavier Gens mad frenzy of a feature film, Frontier(s).

When I first saw Frontier(s), I did as part of a double-feature with Them [Ils], which is kind of funny if you have seen both movies. Them [Ils] is a film that revolves around long takes and slow-building tension. In contrast, Frontier(s) is a very, very visceral horror that uses quick shots to keep you feeling uneasy. It is a film that essentially hits the accelerator from the get-go and then never lets up. In fact, the only real connective tissue between Them [Ils] and Frontier(s) is that they’re both French.

Frontier(s) starts during a series of violent riots in France that is placing young people at odds with the police. Gens is clearly taking real-life inspiration from the 2005 youth riots that broke out in France after two young men of Tunisian and Malian origin were electrocuted while fleeing police. In Frontier(s), riots have sprung up again after a fictional right-wing candidate has moved on to the second ballet in the French presidential election. The scenario presented in the film is fictional, but given the state of tensions in the world, and how France has since had an ultra-right-wing politician make it to the second round of elections, it is quite believable. 

We are then introduced to our protagonists- five Muslim twenty-somethings that took advantage of the riots to steal a duffle bag full of cash before attempting to get out of country. Three of the men get in a shootout with the police, while the other two, Yasmin (Karina Testa) and her brother Sami, are holed up tending to Sami’s bullet wound. 

Eventually the group is reunited before deciding again to split up. The plan is to meet up along the French border after Yasmin and Alex, her on-again-off-again boyfriend, get Sami to a hospital. But Sami dies shortly after arriving at the hospital and Yasmin barely escapes authorities by running back into the car. 

Get all that. No. It is alright. The first 18 minutes of Frontier(s) may be packed full of action, but the events before Sami’s death end up being rather inconsequential- except to give the film some real-world political relevance. But considering most young people in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre-inspired horrors at this point would just be leaving the gas station with their warning to turn back, I can’t complain too much.

So yeah, the first two members of the group book a room in a remote motel and after one gets freaky with the staff, cannibal Nazis happen! Well, not right away. I am kind of spoiling a reveal. But it really doesn’t take all that long to get there…we just need to first get to the abandoned mine.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Yasmin is pregnant with Alex’s baby. But this is not a spoiled reveal. We find this out in the opening monologue.

I am admittedly a bit critical of Frontier(s) political message, but only because it doesn’t go much further than equating xenophobic ultra-right parties with fascism, something that should not come as a shocking revelation in today’s political climate. However, I will give Gens credit for inverting the “other” trope often found in New French Extremity films. Muslim immigrant protagonists are not something we often see. And since our gaze is mostly fixed on the four Muslim youths, it is easier to appreciate Gens’ implicit satire on extreme right-wing values by seeing it from their perspective. Thus, the “other” by association has become the racist elements of French society.

I also found the idea of the neo-Nazis’ willingness to compromise ethnic purity in order to expand the bloodline an amusing concept that pokes fun of the family’s ideological integrity. These Nazi’s are even prove willing to claim Yasmin’s baby as their own to end the genetic damage done by years of inbreeding.

Speaking of our family of Nazis, they’re quite the entertaining collective of barely functional amorality. Jean-Pierre Jorris does a tremendous job playing Von Geisler, the eldest Nazi in charge of the patriarch. There is a real menace in every scene he is in. The strong, overweight Hans working in the butcher rooms acts as a competent Leatherface-like stand-in. Hunchbacked Eva adds an element of innocence-gone-crazy along with some horrific backstory. Samuel Le Bihan, the actor who plays Geotz, is a muscular beast of a human. (I wouldn’t want to cross him.) And let us not forget about Gilberte and Klaudia, those two lovely gun-wielding Nazi ladies. Who’d a thunk. 

Frontier(s) real strength comes in its strange ability to take a convoluted plot packed full of ridiculous sounding ideas and make it somehow not feel needlessly complicated or even silly. Cramped tunnels, boilers, bolt cutters and circular saws all add up to some truly inspired scenes of torture and gore. The film even earned an NC-17 rating when it was released in the United States. 

If you’re a fan of the New French Extremity movement, then Frontier(s) is a must-see. In the end, I am not sure how extreme or taboo the whole affair is- I have admittedly become rather desensitized- but it’s definitely a lot of fun in that typical never-crack-a-smile French horror way.