HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Maléfique'' is a 2002 French
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by Éric Valette.Entry in horror.com
/ref>


Plot

Carrere, a middle-class family man convicted of
financial fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover mone ...
, arrives in prison where he finds himself sharing a cell with three others- Lassalle, an old librarian who murdered his wife; Paquerette, a childlike lunatic who
ate Ate or ATE may refer to: Organizations * Association of Technical Employees, a trade union, now called the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians * Swiss Association for Transport and Environment, a sustainable public transp ...
his infant sister and Marcus, a muscular young
transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
woman (whose crime is not mentioned) who yearns for a sex-change. The cellmates discover, hidden behind a loose brick of the cell-wall, an old hand-written journal which belonged to a prisoner named Danvers in the 1920s who mysteriously disappeared from his cell. The book is filled with incantations and symbols of
black magic Black magic (Middle English: ''nigromancy''), sometimes dark magic, traditionally refers to the use of Magic (paranormal), magic or supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes. The links and interaction between black magic and religi ...
. Although sceptical, Carrere reads aloud one of the incantations and the prisoners are shocked when a bright, burning symbol briefly materialises on the floor. Carrere, and then Lassalle both study the book and they begin to have disturbing visions. Paquerette wakes up one morning to find that during the night, his fingers have vanished. The cellmates argue over what to do with the book. Paquerette grabs the book and starts to eat its pages only to be over-powered by an unseen force which twists his entire body until his spine and neck snap. The other three prisoners are blamed by the guards for Paquerette's death, condemning them to stay in prison for life. Lasselle believes that the book was defending itself. A new prisoner named Picus arrives, a friendly, eccentric man who always carries a video camera. Later, the others wake up one morning to find that Picus has disappeared, leaving his camera and the journal on the floor. They watch the last piece of footage on the camera in which Picus reads an incantation from the book whereupon a brightly lit doorway appears on the wall through which he walks. They ask the guards about Picus but the latter reply that they do not know who the cellmates are talking about, revealing that Picus was a hallucination concocted by the book, designed to reveal the book's true powers. Carrere has been abandoned by his wife and he will never see his beloved son again, the only relic of whom he possesses is an action-figure doll that belonged to his son. Carrere now sees the book as his only chance to escape. The three prisoners read aloud the same incantation that Picus read and the brightly illuminated door-way again appears in the cell wall, through which they walk. They find themselves in a dirty, much older prison cell and the book does not offer a means of escape. They realise that they have entered Danvers’ cell as it was in the 1920s. Carrere and Marcus become angry but Lassalle remains calm and without warning kills Marcus with a sharpened rock. Carrere is furious but Lassalle explains that he finally understands the nature of the book's powers- it was not intended to let them physically escape but to enable them all to realise their deepest desires albeit at a terrible price. A flashback sequence reveals the true fate of the cell's original inhabitant Danvers. Obsessed with youth, Danvers uttered his final spell and the book transformed him into a young man but the reverse ageing did not stop until he was reduced to an unborn infant, dissolving into nothingness. Lassalle says that Marcus' desire to become a woman was not strong enough and she could only be set free through death. Lassalle, who has always been obsessed with, and terrified of, the powers of the written word, grips the book and merges with it, its powers crushing the life out of him. Now the only survivor, Carrere states aloud his dearest wish- to see his son again- and his mouth opens in a silent scream as his eyes vanish. The final scenes occur outside the cell. Carrere's estranged wife and son arrive to collect his belongings, a prison official explaining that Carrere and his cellmates have mysteriously vanished. As they drive home, Carrere's young son plays with the action figure that his father had kept in his cell. The doll's head is seen in close-up and is revealed to have Carrere's living eyes, now able to see his son.


Cast

*
Gérald Laroche Gérald Laroche (born 1964) is a French actor born in Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 resi ...
- Carrère *
Philippe Laudenbach Philippe Laudenbach (31 January 1936 – 22 April 2024) was a French actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films from 1963. Career Philippe Laudenbach, the nephew of Pierre Fresnay (born Peter Laudenbach), was trained at the French Natio ...
- Lassalle *
Clovis Cornillac Clovis Cornillac (born 16 August 1968) is a French actor, film director, and screenwriter. Life and career Clovis Cornillac was born to actors Myriam Boyer and Roger Cornillac. He started studying theatre at the age of 14. He made his debut ...
- Marcus * Dimitri Rataud - Pâquerette * Didier Bénureau - Hippolyte Picus * Geoffrey Carey - Charles Danvers


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Malefique 2002 horror films French horror films French prison films 2002 films Films about trans women LGBTQ-related horror films French LGBTQ-related films 2002 LGBTQ-related films 2000s French films Films produced by Olivier Delbosc Films produced by Marc Missonnier