When the disappearance of children and bloody murders multiply in a small mountain village, an old legend shrouded in sulphur reappears... Commander Guardiano and Captain of the Gendarmerie De Rolan are forced to join forces to uncover the truth.
Virginie Ledoyen
Élisabeth Guardiano
Paul Hamy
Franck De Rolan
Sandrine Bonnaire
Docteur Carole Marbas
Malik Zidi
Fabrice Gonnet
Emmanuel Lanzi
Le motard
Christophe Favre
Henri Maublanc
Jérémy Margallé
M. Vasseur
Francis Renaud
Brigadier-Chef Marcelin
Elisabeth Duda
Pascale Minot
Lya Oussadit-Lessert
Jeanne Maublanc
Chloé Coulloud
Valentine Schwarz
Wendy Grenier
Nina
Emmanuel Bonami
Arnaud
Antoine Levannier
Benjamin Cortes
Oliver Bodart
Raphaël Pietranovsky
Stéphane Dausse
Le prêtre
Juliette Wippler
Fille d'Elisabeth
Maxime Nieto
Olivier Taurand
Cameron Bain
Evan Vasseur
Audrey Golay
Mme Vasseur
Karine Kosc
Maryse Maublanc
Charlène Cudrat
Secrétaire Accueil Hôpital
Thomas Rezette
Droucourt
François Vataire
Réceptionniste de l'hôtel
Valérie Herter
Infirmière de l'hôpital
Élia St-Pierre
Jeanne Maublanc (voice)
Director
Alexandre Bustillo
Director
Julien Maury
Novel
Alexis Laipsker
Writer
Annelyse Batrel
Writer
Ludovic Lefebvre
March 9, 2024
6
"Franck" (Paul Hamy) is hitching his way to a small French village when he is picked up by "Elisabeth" (Virginie Ledoyen). It turns out that she is a police officer send to lead an investigation of double murder and that he is a captain in the national gendarmerie on a continuing mission to track down missing children - a trail that led him to this ostensibly sleepy hamlet. Reminiscent a little of "Doctor Sleep" (2019), the place is overlooked by a sanatorium and quickly the two, initially suspicious of each other, start to realise that their mysterious cases might well be linked. What doesn't really help is a local folklore about the eponymous monster who feeds off the souls of the deceased townsfolk - and as the film gathers pace it seems to be heading for quite a brutal and bloody feast. There might be one really important clue. "Evan" (Cameron Bain) who is the survivor of the apparent self-killings of his parents. What did he see? What does he know? Anything? His psychiatrist "Marbas" (Sandrine Bonnaire) is determined that her charge be left to recuperate, but "Franck" knows he is the link... At times, this is a tensely directed murder mystery but as the plot develops it also rather thins out and neither of the lead characters really offer us much by way of chemistry as serendipity plays just a bit too much of an hand in a denouement that does have quite a fitting twist, but also has something too much of the "Scooby Do" about it. It does just about work in a cinema, the wooded landscapes and the eeriness help it out quite a lot, but on television it will be pretty ordinary.