Belphégor - Le Fantôme du Louvre (2001)
Directed by Jean-Paul Salomé

Film Review

Despite its blockbuster budget and impressive cast line-up, Belphégor - Le fantôme du Louvre is nothing more than a pale imitation of the worst kind of special-effects-driven Hollywood fantasy fare.  The film's biggest deficiency is its risibly bad script which cobbles together some feeble science fiction ideas and the odd reference to Egyptology in a meagre, ham-fisted attempt to entertain a mainstream cinema audience.  The meanest of intelligence would be insulted by the puerile nonsense that masquerades as a plot, in a film that takes itself so seriously.   The story makes no sense whatsoever, virtually every one of the characters in this film is a two-dimensional caricature, and the special effects - ostensibly the film's main selling point - are over-used and already look pretty dated.  If there's one category of film that France consistently does really badly, it is this kind of spectacular fantasy blockbuster.  Few, however, go as badly wrong as this one...

Film Synopsis

A collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts dating back three thousand years is taken to the Louvre Museum in Paris for analysis and classification.  The prize of the collection is an ornate sarcophagus, which is examined with interest by Glenda Spencer, a leading Egyptologist from England.  She is certain that the mummy housed within the sarcophagus is the evil Belphegor.  As the artefact is probed by a laser scanner a ghostly spirit escapes from the sarcophagus and finds its way into the museum's electrical system, resulting in a sudden power cut.  It is at this moment that a young woman named Lisa who lives nearby innocently enters the Louvre to recover her cat.  The mysterious spirit from the sarcophagus transfers itself into her body and she becomes the unwitting host of Belphegor's miraculously preserved life force.  Thus possessed, Lisa makes off with the Egyptian exhibits on display in the museum.  As the Louvre's collection of artefacts dwindles, detective Verlac is given the task of uncovering the identity of the thief...