La Meute (The Pack) Review

Movie: La Meute (The Pack)
By: Orlok666
Date: June 20, 2011

La France strikes again

Coming from one of the most active countries delivering continuous quality horror the last couple of years, ‘La Meute’ (The Pack) offers a good but no extraordinary piece of horror.

On the road again

Starting with a familiar shot we see a girl named Charlotte crossing the French country by car. She picks up a guy hitchhiking and together they take a stop a some worn down bar at a campsite. While having some coffee a small motorcycle gang –three guys; what’s in a gang?- comes in making some trouble. Drinking up a biker-spit filled cup of coffee our heroine shows us how rough ‘n tough she really is and it doesn’t take long before a brawl starts. Being outnumbered our couple is luckily saved by the female owner of the bar. When the dust has settled the hitchhiker called Max suddenly disappears after a visit to the toilet. Charlotte goes off for a search but as the night falls Charlotte realizes she’s locked in at the site and has no other choice than spending the night there…

Lambs to the slaughter

Not able to sit still Charlotte goes back to the toilet where her travel companion disappeared and discovers some hidden room. But she’s not alone… After regaining consciousness again she finds herself locked up in some kind of stable together with some other prisoners. The hitchhiker and the bar owner are into this together – as mother and son of course, luring their prey to their farm site in order to be kept and treated as cattle. Yet, it wouldn’t be a horror if the cows and milk weren’t replaced by humans and blood.

Just when you thought it went all torture porn…

We learn it’s not all about milking humans but also about feeding them to the gruesomely deformed, zombie-like humanoids living beneath the farm’s earth. Charlotte survives the midnight nibbling of these monsters strangely enough. And when a retired sheriff is alarmed by the disappearance of Charlotte her chance for survival increases, ready to make an end to the horrors on the farm but she knows she can’t do it alone.

La Provence

It’s not the first time we are invited to rural France. Especially ‘Calvaire’ (The Ordeal), ‘Haute Tension’ (High Tension) and ‘Frontière(s)’ (international title ‘Frontier(s)’) come to mind. All of these giving a bleak and sombre view of the inhabitants of the countryside. ‘La Meute’ doesn’t really go for a real, depressive and psychological horror as ‘Calvaire’ and also not for the relentless approach ‘Frontière(s)’ and ‘Haute Tension’ are known for but takes it a bit more middle of the road. This doesn’t mean there isn’t any gore but it’s a bit more dosed and the effects look good. As more often in the standard horrors, you don’t care that much what happens to the main characters but in regard it unfortunately doesn’t offer that much else in terms of gore or tension.

France really stands up, ready to take its place in the global horror scene with some really strong, evocative releases and quite a few decent produced, enjoyable horrors the last couple of years. ‘La Meute’ belongs to the latter; it’s a quite fun and nice watch if you’re in for a standard horror.

DVD REVIEW

Image quality

Great image quality for the dvd version shows a bit of grain now and then but it still holds.

Sound

Good sound effects that will let you sit up straight in your chair. 5.1 track so that everything around you gets the chills.

Extras

None

Overall

La Meute could have used some extras but in the end it is an entertaining French horror movie that stands on its own.

Zeno Pictures