Caged

Horrorphile

follow this blog

1040 followers

3571 daily readers

rank of 1

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Captifs (Caged)

October 4th 2011 05:12

Three medical aid workers in former Yugoslavia leave the small town they’ve been stationed at and head for Kosovo, but are forced to take a detour. They are ambushed and kidnapped by a masked gang of rogue Serbian militants and taken to a remote homestead where they are held as prisoners in underground cells. They are fed, and their wounds are treated. Soon enough they discover their captors are organ traffickers. Caged (2010) is a French nightmare thriller with a horror undertone. Directed by Yann Gozlan and co-written by Gozlan and Guillaume Lemans.

Zoe Felix as Carole

Carole (Zoe Felix), Mathias (Eric Savin), and Samir (Arie Elmaleh) have a few drinks together on their last night working together. Samir hits on Carole, but she rebuffs him, while they watch older Mathias pick up a much younger woman. The next morning, with Samir sporting a hangover, and Mathias looking tired, the three doctors share a van where they’ll drive to Kosovo, then head off on different missions. A military roadblock forces them to take a small dirt track detour, which they assume will lead them back onto the main road, but no sooner has Carole decided to take some shuteye than the van screeches to a halt. Masked gunmen force Samir and Carole into the back of another truck. Mathias tries to escape, but is shot in the leg and dumped in with the other two captives.

Eric Savin as Mathias

Days and nights blur together as the three aid workers try to cope with their ordeal. They are held prisoner in barred cells just below ground beneath a house. Samir and Carole are in one, while Mathias is in another. Other prisoners occupy other dark cells nearby. What are their captors motives? Ransom? Killing for pleasure? A phone rings in the corridor separating the cells, and a man in a doctor’s coat answers. He’s been given orders. Samir is hauled from his cell and dragged down the corridor and through a door at the far end. Carole and Mathias can only watch helplessly. Samir is finally returned … his empty abdomen cavity and gouged eye sockets testament to the doctor’s work.

Arie Elmaleh as Samir

There’s nothing new to Caged, but the filmmakers have made a tense, atmospheric, briskly paced, well-performed movie. There’s no real blood and gore (only aftermath), although there is one scene that threatens some nasty ocular horror. The movie relies more on tension and suspense. In that respect the movie reminds me of the Spanish thriller King of the Hill (2009). But its content is much closer to Touristas (2007), a more ambitious movie, but not necessarily a better one.

Caged shows that with thin material you can still make a solid picture as long as your actors are strong, your production values are solid, and the direction and editing are in synch rhythmically. Apparently inspired by real events.

Captifs (Caged)

Add A Comment