House of Voices (2004)

"House of Voices," the first feature film by Pascal Laugier, contains many of the elements that made his 2008 cult-classic "Martyrs" so great. Both films start off in a predictable, genre-specific way -- then gradually reveal darker, stranger, subterranean layers that defy our expectations. Of the two films, "House" is lighter fare, while "Martyrs" is far bloodier and much, much more disturbing."House of Voices," begins as a slow-build Gothic ghost-story, in the vein of 2007's "The Orphanage" or 2001's "The Others." "House" works quite well on this level, featuring engaging female performances, a slowly-unravelling mystery, some handsome cinematography, a lush dramatic score, and some moments of genuine dread. But then, in its final act, the film takes a sharp and surprising turn toward the surreal. I could describe what happens in these scenes, but what really makes them work is the way they're filmed -- the simple strange visual power of these moments. Suffice to say, while you might have a general idea where the plot of this movie is headed, you will probably not foresee exactly how it arrives there.The final scenes of this movie plumb some nightmarish depths, departing stylistically from the subtle Gothic-horror which came before, and entering far stranger territory. Don't worry; it all adds up. This isn't one of those horror films which leads you on, only to end with such strangeness that you have no hope of understanding what the movie was about. No, everything here makes sense in terms of the film's plot. It's just that the film's sudden stylistic change is jarring and surreal, evoking the kinds of unexpected shifts we might experience in our deepest nightmares.For me, this movie worked quite well. I see some others here have given it bad reviews. I gather that's because they don't know how to tell a thoughtful, well-made film from worthless pap like the "Saw" franchise. This certainly isn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it's a very fine, thoughtful, moderately scary film with a bizarre final act that might haunt you afterward.If you like this film, and you have a strong stomach, I'd certainly recommend Laugier's "Martyrs." It plays the same stylistic tricks as this film, but much more intensely, and to greater effect. Word of warning, though: It is a far more disturbing film than "House of Voices."

I was eager to watch House of Voices, the first movie from the man who brought us the best horror movie ever made- Martyrs. But this movie is a failure, not so much for Pascal Laugier as a director, more so as a writer.In House of Voices, the lovely Virginie Ledoyen, plays Anna, a girl with a troubled past and who is pregnant, and who arrives to work at an orphanage as part of the custodian team. One of the orphans there warns her of strange children. Soon, all the kids are taken somewhere and only Anna, a Romanian woman- the head custodian, and an older teen orphan with mental problems stay behind.The house doesn't feature a whole lot of voices, but something is going on as we learn in he intro. The communal bath has a giant mirror and something goes on behind it. Anna is pregnant but at times appears to want to put an end to the pregnancy. She investigates the place further and finds pictures and files of children. The mental girl also whispers of children, while the woman tries to steer them away from all that.Eventually Anna, too, sees something behind he mirror, brakes it and craws to the space behind it, and further goes through a long shaft that will take her to some kind of a hospital facility were she will encounter her fears.House of Voice is very different from Martyrs. It has almost no violence, almost no gore, very little dialog. For the first hour, nothing particularly interesting happens as Anna walks through hallways endlessly and discovers very little. However, some elements from Martyrs are prefigured here. The movie looks good, has an interesting tone to it, but is very boring and slow for the most part. It is well directed, but in post-production Laugier dropped the ball. It's hard to believe he was satisfied with the cut provided by the editor. As it turns out, the most important scenes with dialog and that provide story ended up in the deleted scenes section. Every single one of them should have been included in the movie, while there are plenty of pointless scenes that should have been edited out.Also more interesting than the movie itself is the making-off featurette where the writer/director tells us more of what he had in mind. Unfortunately, it doesn't really come out well in the movie, again mostly because key scenes were edited out. But I also think that in the end, there simply wasn't a whole lot there in terms of a story to begin with. There is no twist, no major revelation, even in terms of meaning there isn't much there. You're really left to your own devices to make something out of the story.Fortunately, between this movie and Martyrs, Laugier figured out how convey his intention and the editor learned how to edit a film without butchering the story. It's not surprising that Martyrs and House of Voices where written and directed by the same person, but that they were edited by the same guy.

I love haunted house movies like some horror fans love a good slasher movie. I'm not talking about George C. Scott tooling around an empty house for some dead kid's bouncy ball. I'm talking about seriously creepy haunted house flicks where the house is possessed by stuff that would make Lovecraft rise from the grave. This film is nice to look at but it breaks the first rule of haunted house movies: it's ridiculously boring. Even after drinking a flagon of Mountain Dew, I had to struggle to keep my eyelids on the out and open mode during several stretches of this film. When I say nothing happens in this film, I really mean nothing happens at all. Some Natalie Portman lookalike babe who's hiding her pregnancy ends up at an orphanage in the 50's to work as a cleaning lady while the place undergoes renovations. Everyone vacates the premises except for the plump, matronly cooking wench and one orphan who's been there just a tad too long and does a bang-up Courtney Love impression. Apparently, the place is haunted but you wouldn't know that from watching the damn movie. A good haunted house movie doesn't rely on a few boo-jumps but more on solid atmosphere and creepy settings. I guess the director didn't get that memo. It's not awful, just extremely dull. That's a shame, because the house and the actors are there, but the story isn't. Toward the end of the film, the main character discovers what's really going on and what follows is so out of left field and jarringly gauche for the movie, I was checking to make sure I hadn't fallen asleep and accidentally started another movie while I was snoozing. If you want something playing in the background while you have a Saturday afternoon nap, go ahead and put House of Voices on. You'll probably have a boring dream about being a hot housekeeper in France.

First of all, don't watch it unless you want to waste one and a half hours of your life.Actually, the first 3-minute-long scene is pretty OK, you might even think it's a good movie but it's misleading. This movie is boring, pathetic, illogical and has no story at all. The movie should rather be called "the adventures of a pregnant lady trying to hide the obvious, a weird girl suffering from mental retardation and one of those everyone-knows-they-had-done-something-really-bad-before kind of old lady", though it obviously wouldn't be as appealing as a good sounding french name but at least it would've kept thousands of confiding people from watching this bullshit.Also, I wonder where the advertized twist ending is. I must have missed it (maybe I fell asleep?) because I only remember the most obvious ending possible. I really couldn't hold my laughter back (nor did I want to) when the girl started to give birth with all the zombie kids standing around her watching. Seriously, it MUST have been a joke.The acting wasn't that bad (it could've been worse) but the horrible and hardly understandable french (romanian?) accent ruined it.One more thing I need to mention about this movie is the music. It was really good only not for a horror movie packed with Really Dramatic Moments. However, it would go pretty good with a comedy.All in all, this movie is just awful, and not even that "laughing my butt off" kind of awful. I don't recommend it for anyone.