Director: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
Year: 2024
Country: France/Belgium
Alternate Titles: Le mangeur d'âmes
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Plot:
Following a series of gruesome murders, authorities in a small French mountain town are brought together to solve the mystery before them, which suggests that the different cases eventually relate to one another and bring them together to solve the mystery before them.
Review:
This wasn’t that bad of a murder mystery genre effort. One of the better features of this one is the impressive setup offering a rather solid means of tying together various storylines present throughout here. The main storyline about the gruesome murders bringing the main detective to the town is a fine touch, while the later revelation that the concurrent investigator looking into the missing kids has a related air to it comes off rather nicely. With the whole thing coming under more impressive means as the connections become obvious due to the treatment of the villagers who are so inept at keeping their buried secrets from the investigation it only highlights the connective tissue for both of them, it allows for some fine moments where the two come across the superstitious locals and the additional clues to the case that come about which allow for some generally fun positives at points.
Outside of that, there’s not much else to this one. While the mystery itself is quite well-written and flows together nicely at the end, there’s not much in the way of anything interesting happening for long periods with the lethargic pacing causing so much of the interest in the case to wither away slowly. The bonding scenes that happen with the two of them getting into a relationship together or trying to get the locals to cooperate with their individual investigations make for a sluggish experience waiting around for something to happen. That might’ve changed had this gone for a more straight-up slasher film instead of the thriller route it does with the concurrent murders being off-screen and stumbled upon so even the aftermath gore isn’t that memorable. The idea of the folklore creature being responsible makes little sense when it's dropped easily to try to tackle some of the genre material present, all bringing this down somewhat.
Overview: **/5
A solid enough thriller in most regards but let down when it tries to be a full-on genre effort, this one is generally intriguing enough to be watchable but not much else beyond that. Give it a shot if you’re fine with this type of genre fare, are curious about it, or are fans of the creative crew while most others out there should heed caution.
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