Sheitan

Sheitan (2006): Well, I gave the French one more shot at obtaining Tapehead credibility and rented another Franco-horro film. This one is about a couple of city couples who go to the country on Christmas Eve for a couple of couplings. Three guys and one gal are drinking in a raucous bar and pick up a cute French girl from the country who invites them to spend Christmas Eve at her home in the boonies. The interesting angle is that the four are from Moslem families living in France and they aren’t too concerned about Christmas as much as they are in attempts at begating with members of the opposite sex. The four are quickly divested of any innocence they might have had when they rob a gas station to obtain gas and nachos to aid in initiating the country trip.

Once arriving at the large country manor, they meet Joseph (Vincent Cassel) the field hand who has the biggest toothy smile in all of Christendom and looks mad as a hatter. Who says first impressions are usually wrong? He lives in the house with his pregnant wife and there are a couple of other loonies that appear to be wandering around in the house but the girl’s parents are long gone. The group have a weird swim in the local hot springs that further enhances the idea that we have left normal France far behind and entered the Zon de Twiluz. Several attempted grapplings occur along with long meaningless dialogues between various cast members that tend to obscure any rational behavior spotted earlier in the movie. Suffice it to say that while better than other recent French flickers, this one though having a true beginning, still has a long middle and may even have an ending but by then all hope of understanding it will have passed by. It was interesting to note that the Moslem cast members, while soulless, crooked and usually drunk, appeared mostly rational while almost every Frenchman is depicted as a madman or a retard. Hopefully, this movie isn’t too close to reality. The movie is unrated but would probably come in with an R for; multiple orbulations, multiple toothy smiles, excessive thigh rubbing, excessive eye removals, flattening via Peugeot, short shorts in winter, abrupt motor scooter stoppage, goat abuse, and especially for the baby dropping scene.