Inside (French: À l'intérieur) is a 2007 French horror film directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo in their directorial debut, written by Bustillo, and starring Béatrice Dalle and Alysson Paradis. The plot focuses on a mourning widow on the verge of giving birth, who is attacked in her home by a mysterious intruder on Christmas Eve. The film was theatrically released in France on June 13, 2007, and received positive reviews from film critics, with some citing it as part of the New French Extremity movement.
Plot On Christmas Eve, four months after expectant mother Sarah Scarangella survives a car crash that kills her husband, she makes final preparations for her delivery the following day. Her baby is overdue. Still reeling from her husband's death, Sarah has grown moody and depressed. She turns down her mother's request to stay with her for the night and has asked her employer Jean-Pierre to take her to the hospital for her eventual delivery. That evening, a mysterious, unidentified woman arrives at Sarah's door, asking to use the telephone to call for help. Sarah lies that her husband is sleeping and she does not want to be disturbed, but the woman tells her that she knows that he is dead. When the visitor persists on coming in, Sarah, a professional photographer, attempts to take her photo through a window and telephones the police. When they arrive, the woman has already vanished. The police assure Sarah that she will be fine, arranging to have a patrol car visit throughout the night. Upon developing her photos, Sarah recognizes the woman in the background of an earlier photo she had taken, indicating she was stalking Sarah. Sarah telephones Jean-Pierre, asking to have the photos enhanced. As she goes to bed, the woman arrives in the bedroom, awakening Sarah with scissors puncturing her pregnant belly. Sarah fights the visitor off (who slashes part of Sarah's face with the scissors) and locks herself in the bathroom, where the woman tries to gain entry. The woman makes clear that her intentions are to take Sarah's child for herself. Jean-Pierre arrives, and not knowing what Sarah's mother looks like, takes the woman's word that she is the mother. Not long after her actual mother Louise arrives, arousing his suspicion. Louise heads upstairs to check on her daughter. Believing her to be the attacker, Sarah accidentally kills Louise by stabbing a needle into her neck. Jean-Pierre is later stabbed to death by the intruder. The police arrive to check up on her with a prisoner in tow. Not knowing what Sarah looks like, the police take the woman's word that she is Sarah and everything is fine. As they are about to leave, the police realize the woman who answered the door was not pregnant and return to the home. The first officer is stabbed to death with knitting needles as he attempts to arrest the attacker. The second is shot in the back of the head as he attempts to help Sarah. The attacker turns off the power as the third enters, waiting until they go to turn it back on before shooting the officer and stabbing his prisoner in the head. Sarah confronts the woman, and both injure each other with various household appliances. Sarah points a sewing needle at her own stomach, and the woman knocks her to the ground. Sarah manages to burn off half of the woman's face with an aerosol container and cigarette. The woman flees, and after being cornered by Sarah, reveals that she was the other driver in the car accident, which killed her unborn baby. She wants Sarah's baby as a replacement. Before anything else can happen or be said, the two are interrupted by the revival of the third police officer; having been shot in close proximity by the woman with his riot gun, he survived the attack but is now disoriented and blinded. He confuses Sarah with her attacker and beats her in the stomach with his club, forcing her water to break. The woman comes to Sarah's aid and kills the officer with the rod of a shower curtain; Sarah, now lying on the stairs, has begun to give birth and the baby is stuck. The woman performs the Caesarean section on Sarah with scissors, saving the infant but killing Sarah in the process. The woman then sits in a chair and begins rocking the baby, who briefly cries, as she looks at Sarah, who lies dead on the steps.
Cast
Production Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo met each other through a mutual friend. After the meeting, Bustillo sent Maury a first draft of the script and Maury sent over some short films that he had worked on in the past. According to Maury, "The first idea with the story was to change the sex of the killer. In horror movies it’s always a guy chasing after young girls; it’s one of the clichés of the genre. So the first main idea was changing the identity of the bad guy. We wondered what was the motivation for a woman to hunt another woman?" In a 2011 interview with Collider, Bustillo noted that Inside was "a slasher movie made in a sort of American style" in contrast to his and Maury's subsequent film, Livid, which Bustillo described as "a lurid fairy tale and very European". The film was given a budget of 1.7 million Euros.
Release
Inside was released on 13 June 2007 in France.
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