The Pack (La Meute) (2010)
Distributor: Icon Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date (UK): 4th July 2011
Directed by: Franck Richard
Starring: Yolande Moreau, Émilie Dequenne, Benjamin Biolay, Philippe Nahon
Review by: Ben Bussey
It began like any other day on a bleak/remote/desolate country road in deepest darkest France. A moody emo girl burned down the road in her dirty old car, blasting metal on the CD player and ruminating on how miserable she is. Along the way she attracts the attention of some randy bikers. And then, for whatever reason, she stops to pick up a hitchhiker. Ah, what am I saying, he’s a pretty long-haired Frenchman, I know why she stopped to pick him up. Soon they stop off at a bleak/remote/desolate roadside bar named La Spack. Those same bikers show up, and confrontation ensues, but this is quickly dissapated by the landlady of the establishment, apparently also named La Spack. But just when things seem to be looking up for our moody emo girl heroine, it suddenly transpires that – shock horror – things are not quite what they seem…
Yep. It begins like any other day on a bleak/remote/desolate country road, and it ends that way too. It should subsequently come as no surprise that incarceration, torture and the consumption of human flesh follow in no short order. I would have opted to keep it a secret that in this particular instance the old hillbilly horror format is tweaked ever so slightly with the inclusion of monsters, but as this is made abundantly clear by the very nice Graham Humphreys cover art there doesn’t seem much point keeping it under wraps. And indeed, now that I’ve told you that there seems very little left to say on the subject of The Pack. It takes an existing formula that has been put to film innumerable times, gives it a few minor twists, but ultimately fails to take the audience on a journey that it hasn’t been on a thousand times before.
It must be tricky these days to be a first time writer/director working in the horror genre in France. Franck Richard has quite the standard to live up to. And while his film may look and sound very nice, and have some strong central performances, his efforts can’t help but look a bit pedestrian by comparison with those of his fellow countrymen Aja, Maury and Bustillo, and Laugier (and I say that as one who didn’t even like Martyrs very much). Not only that, but The Pack has the whole survivalist/hillbilly horror tradition to live up to, and again it just doesn’t stand up well by comparison.
There’s plenty that works. As previously stated, it’s all very pleasing aesthetically, and well-acted. Yolande Moreau makes for a good villianess, thanks to the way she approaches feeding people to the creatures that live in the earth with the same emotionless, workmanlike manner in which she runs her establishment. Also, for those like myself who know Philippe Nahon only for his turn as the nightmarish killer of Aja’s Haute Tension, it’s curiously entertaining to see him take on such a different role as the seemingly incompetent local policeman who might be more than meets the eye; definite shades of Colombo there. As for Émilie Dequenne and Benjamin Biolay; well, they’re young, good looking and French, so they clearly don’t have anything to worry about. Their characters are less endearing, and as such their performances are of somewhat less interest.
I missed The Pack when it played at FrightFest last year, and I can’t say I’m sorry. Subsequently I don’t think it’s one you should begrudge missing on DVD. Much as with such other recent French horrors like Mutants and The Horde, it’s not exactly a bad film; it’s just that I personally just can’t shake a feeling of overfamiliarity. Who knows, you may well feel otherwise. Stranger things have happened.