After HAUTE TENSION, I used my 2005 “Best of” to proclaim “Viva La France”. This was a two-fold notification. One, it served to show a cinema world that believed J-Horror was the last bastion of hope for our beloved genre that other folks could make films too, and second it served as a hope and a desire that more films from the land of fois gras and fromage would come to our shores and show us more of what other auteurs like Gaspar Noé and Alexandre Aja were capable of. Since that time, Aja has not disappointed and in addition to his THE HILLS HAVE EYES re-make, Cinéma Français has also provided such spectacular fare as Kim Chapiron’s wonderfully twisted SHEITAN. Now a pair of new filmmakers are crossing the pond to take a fresh stab at American audiences with their thriller ILS.

David Moreau and Xavier Palud—currently lensing a remake of The Pang Brothers’ Hong Kong horror classic THE EYE—how’s that for ironic, given my original sentiments—are set to provide us with a very slippery slope in genre filmmaking, the “true” story.

Now, there have been lots of “based on blah, blah, blah” tales over the years, but like 300 author Frank Miller recently said “Why let truth get in the way of a good story”. Still, one thing remains certain, if this case is true, there is precious little media coverage of it. In fact, the best I could come up with was nothing more than an impassioned news clipping of a Clémentine Saveur’s sister begging for information—a clip I might add that, in addition to appearing on several other webpages, is also included on the films official website—which adds a bit of contention about it’s validity. So, if ILS winds up no more than an “Ed Gein inspired PSYCHO” bending of the truth it means very little in the grand cinematic scheme of things. Real or not, one thing is certain - it sure could have happened that way.

The plot is basic; a woman, Clémentine (Olivia Bonamy, BLOODY MALLORY) arrives home to her husband Lucas (Michaël Cohen) after a day of teaching French as a second language at a Hungarian elementary school. As the day passes into night, the pair retires to bed and waits for the breaking dawn to waken them. But something else does first—a bump in the night. The rest of the film is an extended chase sequence with Lucas and Clémentine trapped inside their home trying desperately to escape the mysterious intruders that have taken this residence hostage.

ILS is virtually defined by its filmmaking style. Sound design and set-up are what makes ILS more than simply two people trapped in a house screaming their bloody heads off. This film deserves to be seen in a packed theater with an expert sound system. Every creek and rattle, every bump and thump, propel the plot forward and the final frenetic moments of the film’s wildly intense climax are as grittily terrifying as the iconic image of tortured and exhausted Sally Hardesty stumbling into the street in the final frames of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE ever was.

So, what of the fearsome beasts that stalked the once happy couple? Surely you don’t expect an answer here? But, I’ll tell you this much, it’s a conclusion that will shatter what little faith you might have left in humanity. And that makes ILS a satisfyingly sad yet wonderfully terrifying entry into the new lexicon of French horror cinema.