As backwoods horror films go this isn't great. Gaping holes in consistency, some nonsensical behaviour, and some low level moments are found in this film.Benjamin Biolay seems to pose more than act, suggesting perhaps he should stick to singing and beautiful women. The award winning Emilie Duquenne is introduced driving whilst nodding to music. She looks so uncomfortable doing so that this sequence almost signals that the film to follow is not going to exactly be top notch. And it does turn out a bit of an amateur affair. It is possible to see how this would have been a first class movie if they had spent more time on the editing and generally reworking the script, and recast.There are some better aspects as it does feel like the auteur is a lover of this genre. Yolande Moreau fills the screen and creates most of the madness. Some of the lines from the generally entertaining dialogue are great. The music and soundtrack is excellent and well chosen. A surprisingly weedy Matthias Schoenaerts looks hilarious in his brief cameo as a goth.A mediocre production that seems to have some good ideas and love behind it, and the film does provide some decent moments and Yolande Moreau.

"I told you not to pick up hitchhikers" says the buffoonish old cop to the damsel-in-distress, as he frees her from her cage. So that must be the movie's message: don't give rides to hitchhikers because they might be merely bait to get you to stop over in a seedy backwoods diner, where a fat woman will kidnap you, and then prepare you as food for her brood of dead/undead bloodthirsty demons-from-beneath-the-surface sons. I think it's a lesson we can all agree on is both useful and intelligent. I, for one, have often considered picking up hitchhikers, but then changed my mind at the last moment, fearing that the hitchhiker might be one of those numerous cannibals (or at the very least friends-of-cannibals) so I always thought "nah, not worth the risk; if they stick me in a cage and try to force-feed me with weird nutrients through a tube as I sit shackled in a torture-chair, how do I know that I won't be annoyed, or even eaten?" This is probably why I am still alive and not being digested in the guts of a French-movie hell-demon-zombie.So how did the events in this highly original flick even come about? It all started when the family from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" downloaded the "Motel Hell" DVD one day. They became instant fans of this "classic". This life-changing cinematic experience lead them to the decision to take an extensive French-language course. A year later they moved to rural France, where the male clan members got jobs at the local mine. A mine accident occurred and the fine young cannibal males all died. Then – as is the case with all buried/killed miners - they rose from the dead, then lost their eyesight, started looking like the creature from "Pan's Labyrinth", and then cried out in one voice, loudly: "Mom, we're moles now, and we want be to fed like moles… sort of. Human Tofu, pleeeeease!" All clear?It's just another brainless, depraved, sadistic-for-the-sake-of-it French flick, without an ounce of logic or purpose. The only thing that differentiates LM from similar turds, such as "Martyrs" and "L'interieur", is that this particular celluloid disaster has elements of fantasy in it, whereas most other Nouveau Extremisme de la France turdeuax don't.The movie completely lost me in what I consider a crucial scene – and by "crucial" I mean crucially MORONIC scene: when the girl and the hitchhiker approach his farm early on, they see a young woman wrapped in cellophane, running frantically and bumping into furniture, eventually knocking herself unconscious. This amazingly odd event, which would have had anyone suddenly very wary of entering the diner, left our damsel COMPLETELY cold. She just didn't care. Are we to assume that in rural France it is customary to welcome diner guests by hiring women to run around, wrapped in cellophane, while they bump into things randomly? Judging from the damsel's reaction – yes. This scene was crucial because it took me out of the movie, i.e. from that point onwards I simply couldn't take these absurd characters seriously, hence I stopped taking the movie seriously, hence I didn't care what happens. When a few minutes later three absurd/fictional bikers started pounding the cellophane-wrapped girl in the face viciously, that merely confirmed that I was watching an extremely dumb movie. A little later, guess what happens? Well, what MUST happen in every perverse French movie: a man has to be raped. (The cinematic tradition of male-on-male rape is a one that French film-makers carefully nurture.) Fortunately for her son, Momma Texas Chainsaw arrives with a shotgun at the last moment, points it at the very unrealistic bikers, thereby sparing her offspring a very painful introduction into the bizarre world of French-movie sodomy.It's not entirely clear why Momma Texas Chainsaw's mole-sons had decided not to eat the damsel when she was on their menu that one evening. Perhaps they preferred Tofu that day? (Their Oriental victim had the word "Tofu" branded on his forehead. I did say the movie was fairly retarded.) Nor is it at all clear why Momma Texas Chainsaw is immune to bullets; she got shot, point blank, and yet she stood up later without even a bullet mark or any trace of blood staining her beautiful peasant-slasher attire. Later on, we have more confusion when the three very fictional bikers reappear, and then barely react to having a freshly severed head thrown at them through a window. Apparently, rural French bikers get that all the time – body parts being hurled at them. It doesn't faze them.In fact, these bikers later UNITE with the damsel and Momma Texas Chainsaw's only non-mole son, against her and her mole brood. And no, it's not a tongue-in-cheek movie. IT'S. SIMPLY. STUPID.Nor is it clear why the old cop behaves in such a bizarre way. (Nor why he is so daft as to lean on the cage where the obviously undead Momma Texas Chainsaw resided.) Must everyone be insane in a French horror film? Even the good guys? Sure, why not. This is a very French movie, don't forget.LM can't even stick to its own rules. First the mole-zombies move very slowly, but later on they're suddenly Olympics sprint champions. Even their numbers shift. At first there are four, but later a dozen of them – and we know that Momma Texas Chainsaw fed only a handful. At the end of these 80 minutes of sheer twaddle, the damsel eventually loses her battle against evil, and ends up hanging from a rope, upside-down, while her 38th liter of blood drips down her face (she's got a leg missing, see). In LM, it's not just the mole-zombies that defy the laws of physics, biology, and even the most basic logic.

Some alternative/metal type chick named Charlotte is taking a road trip. She gets harassed by bikers and to protect herself picks up a hitchhiker named Max. They take a break at a run-down road stop, when the bikers return. Fortunately, the heavy bartender lady takes out her shotgun and the bikers escape. When Max doesn't return from a bathroom stop and Charlotte can't get any answers she decides to stick around and investigate at night. She meets an old guy who sort of plays cop. He, too is looking for someone.When Charlotte goes investigating, she's hit in the head and wakes up in a cage in a barn with some other tourist. They're hooked up to a machine that feeds them something and extracts their blood. Then at night they're hung upside down so their blood drips into the ground. And that's when a pack of creatures rises out of the earth to consume the blood and the victims.But Charlotte gets some help and avoids death. But she still has to find a way out and avoid the creatures.La Meute is a great understated horror movie. It has a unique, different, and great lead character in Charlotte. Unlike her superficial US counterparts, she is tough and wild for real. First-time director Franck Richard does en outstanding job. This movie, despite limited resources is very compelling. It only has a few characters and you're pretty much stuck in this weird wasted trailer park overseeing some city. But at no point does one get bored. The way it is filmed, every shot is interesting.Even the story is fascinating and different. The creatures aren't just some pointless creatures, but we do learn about their origins. And the twists in the story keep you engaged till the very end.This review is of the German DVD version, which is even shorter than the US release for some reason. And on top of that, it's slapped with an NC-17-type rating. German censors/distributors are even more moronic than American. From some scenes in the making-of featurette, I gather this movie is quite bloody. All blood, violence, and gore is edited out in the German version, so I take it this movie is even more horrific in its complete version. Why American distributors chose to edit out 6 minutes I can't imagine. What could the French possibly have filmed that would be so offensive to American fans of horror.In any case, in this era of globalism, to have all these various edited versions by country is just obnoxious and ridiculous. Perhaps it makes sense for theatrical version, but why with DVDs? I hope that this movie will be released in the US in it's entirety at some point. And I look forward to seeing future horror movies by this director. After an exhilarating start, French horror has been going downhill lately. The Pack is a refreshing and much needed movie that overturn this downward trend.

I wonder whether the script for this one was complete before filming began or whether they just made things up as they went along. The film is a tonal mish-mash, falling into three distinct segments of notably varying seriousness, starting as a coarsely comic affair it then moves into dark "woman in peril" territory, ending in the realms of loopy siege horror. Fortunately things are underpinned by a fine lead, inspired villain and constant dark ambiance that is rather chilling at times. We follow the attractive young Charlotte Massot, driving across France when she picks up a long-haired hitcher. Stopping off at a roadside restaurant they narrowly miss getting raped before Charlottes new friend goes missing and things get worse from here. The film combines numerous backwoods horror tropes into one tasty brew, geographic isolation and cultural isolation with all character bar the heroine being rather strange, threat of being raped, threat of being eaten, broad characters and wonky dialogue, all dealt out with mania that never winks at the audience, no matter what the cliché. Handy performances give this one a big leg up, Emilie Duquenne is a delightful lead, tough but convincingly frayed when things get nasty, and affectingly traumatised when her ordeal gets nasty. Eric Godon gives suitably greased up and shifty vibes as the hitchhiker, while Philip Nahon plays things broad as a dirty minded cop. Highest marks go to Yolande Moreau as physically imposing, fearsomely tough restaurant owner La Spack, homely looks and unwieldy size hiding creepy malevolence and impressive vigor. Director Franck Richard largely plays things unflashy but has some imaginative flair, the film is focused less on action or big setpieces than mood, with plenty of time spent highlighting the grim and grimy art direction, bleak surroundings and atmospheric outdoor conditions. Some gore, though the gore scenes are around just long enough to be appreciable rather than dwelt on. Score and sound design brood, erupting in industrial pounding when events really hot up, a good complement to the visuals. Tighter handling would have helped this one, also some better dialogue but altogether I had a great time. Well worth a look for loopy backwoods/hicksploitation horror enthusiasts.