Philippe Robert’s Resonnances
Synapse Film
All Region
NTSC
Resonnances
is one of those guilty pleasures. While made on a limited income and using incredibly
predictable horror themes and motifs it actually works and offers lots of
terror and more than a few jumps. Combining B grade special effects that at
times make you laugh but more often give you a jolt this is a film which is a
strange amalgam of motifs taking obvious inspiration from The Thing, Tremors and
even a bit of The Evil Dead.
The
film opens in 16th century France, something horrid falls from space and chases
a poor peasant girl through a forest from under the ground. She reaches a stone
wall and tries to scale it, however soon the unseen thing slams her against the
wall and explodes from under the ground in a shower of dirt and grime. We don’t
see what happens next but we know it didn’t end well.
Now
we are in modern day France and a gaggle of friends are having a BBQ in
preparation to travel to a club in the mountains. They pile into a couple of
cars and are on the way, ready for a good time. The character development is
rather good, the friends interact well and there is quite a fast paced repartee
between them all.
Of
course along the way everything that can go wrong does go wrong. As they travel
towards the club they hear an announcement about an escaped prisoner. One of
the cars runs out of fuel and they push it to a service station which is
deserted. Out of nowhere comes a stranger who asks for help, with ill regard
for common sense they give him a ride.
As
they continue up through the mountains, a thick fog descends and a woman seems
to appear out of nowhere (a ghost ?), in horror they
crash down a mountain pass. The car sinks into the ground and they get out
alive but one of the group is badly injured.
They
use their mobiles to ring for help but this has an unforseen result, the phone
signals resonate through the ground and now they a
large but unseen creature from the depth to deal with. Just how many terrible
things can occur in one night ?
It
is fair to say there are lots of horror clichés on show in Resonnances
but the strange thing is that they work and work well. Robert’s shows amazing
aptitude with a low budget and lots of creativity. The Synapse release includes
new translated easy to read English subtitles and French Dolby 5.1. and 2.0 soundtracks.
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