Promenons-nous dans les bois (2000) Directed by Lionel Delplanque
Horror / Thriller
aka: Deep in the Woods
Film Synopsis
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf..? Evidently not the five actors who
are invited to a remote country house to offer their modern interpretation
of the tale Little Red Riding Hood. The house's owner, a crippled
widower named Axel de Fersen, has arranged this curious entertainment as
a special birthday treat for his grandson Nicholas, who is just about the
creepiest infant imaginable. Things start out as well as can be expected,
and the five budding thespians - Sophie, Matthieu, Mathilde, Jeanne and Wilfried
- make a good impression on their host and his hard-to-please grandson.
Nicholas shows he is no normal child by stabbing himself with a fork during
dinner.
This seemingly innocuous act of self-mutilation turns out to be frighteningly
prescient, for later that night Axel is stabbed to death and his body is
then mysteriously spirited away. Sophie is the only member of the troupe
who appears troubled by these events - she is desperate to get away from
the house before the killer strikes again. For some reason, her four
friends appear unconcerned and are resolved to stay, not wishing to let something
as inconsequential as a murder frighten them off. With a clearly deranged
killer on the premises, it might seem an odd thing to do but the friends
can't resist taking a nocturnal walk in the woods. It isn't before
one of the party suddenly goes missing that they realise their lives might
be in danger. It would appear that there is something very nasty afoot.
The big bad wolf has plenty more surprises in store for them yet...
In the 1920s French cinema was at its most varied and stylish - witness the achievements of Abel Gance, Marcel L'Herbier, Jean Epstein and Jacques Feyder.
A wave of fresh talent in the late 1950s, early 1960s brought about a dramatic renaissance in French cinema, placing the auteur at the core of France's 7th art.