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The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Some alternative/metal type chick named Charlotte is taking a road trip. She gets harassed by bikers and to protect herself picks up a hitchhiker named Max. They take a break at a run-down road stop, when the bikers return. Fortunately, the heavy bartender lady takes out her shotgun and the bikers escape. When Max doesn't return from a bathroom stop and Charlotte can't get any answers she decides to stick around and investigate at night. She meets an old guy who sort of plays cop. He, too is looking for someone.When Charlotte goes investigating, she's hit in the head and wakes up in a cage in a barn with some other tourist. They're hooked up to a machine that feeds them something and extracts their blood. Then at night they're hung upside down so their blood drips into the ground. And that's when a pack of creatures rises out of the earth to consume the blood and the victims.But Charlotte gets some help and avoids death. But she still has to find a way out and avoid the creatures.La Meute is a great understated horror movie. It has a unique, different, and great lead character in Charlotte. Unlike her superficial US counterparts, she is tough and wild for real. First-time director Franck Richard does en outstanding job. This movie, despite limited resources is very compelling. It only has a few characters and you're pretty much stuck in this weird wasted trailer park overseeing some city. But at no point does one get bored. The way it is filmed, every shot is interesting.Even the story is fascinating and different. The creatures aren't just some pointless creatures, but we do learn about their origins. And the twists in the story keep you engaged till the very end.This review is of the German DVD version, which is even shorter than the US release for some reason. And on top of that, it's slapped with an NC-17-type rating. German censors/distributors are even more moronic than American. From some scenes in the making-of featurette, I gather this movie is quite bloody. All blood, violence, and gore is edited out in the German version, so I take it this movie is even more horrific in its complete version. Why American distributors chose to edit out 6 minutes I can't imagine. What could the French possibly have filmed that would be so offensive to American fans of horror.In any case, in this era of globalism, to have all these various edited versions by country is just obnoxious and ridiculous. Perhaps it makes sense for theatrical version, but why with DVDs? I hope that this movie will be released in the US in it's entirety at some point. And I look forward to seeing future horror movies by this director. After an exhilarating start, French horror has been going downhill lately. The Pack is a refreshing and much needed movie that overturn this downward trend.

Particularly since the new Millennium, France is by far THE nation to keep under close monitoring when it comes to the release of original, boundary-breaking and downright shocking new movies in the horror genre! They released already a handful of instant classics, like "High Tension", "Inside", "Frontier(s)" and "Martyrs" and a fair bunch of titles that are far more worthwhile to check out than the average American or Asian accomplishments. Naturally, of course, they also have their share of epic failures and the inevitable "close-but-no-cigar" efforts. "The Pack", a co-production with Belgium - would fit right into this last category. Writer/director Franck Richard mixes old and tiresome genre clichés with fresh and courageous ideas, and the overall result is a massively uneven and quirky film. What starts out as a seemingly commonplace rural road horror movie abruptly alters into something unclassifiable; partially survival flick and partially zombie adventure. But not your typical kind of flesh-eating rotten corpses, but more like the pioneering type of zombies as they featured in "White Zombie", "I walked with a Zombie" and "Plague of the Zombies". The sudden change of course I found titillating, but these most fascinating parts of the screenplay are underdeveloped and chaotic. Perhaps Richard shouldn't have wasted his (and our) time with the overlong, dull and derivative first half and should have moved on to the more creative and ingenious plot a lot quicker. But the main issue of "The Pack", according to yours truly at least, lies with the mundane character development and ineffective atmosphere building. Lead chick Charlotte is another headstrong and rebellious feminist on the run for something which we don't know. She picks up a mysterious and not-so-handsome stranger whose silence clearly reveals a hidden agenda. They encounter psychopathic bikers, a creepy corpulent woman owning a ramshackle truck-stop diner and a goofy old guy with a funny T-shirt. These are hardly new and exciting characters to feature in a horror movie and thus you set your expectations quite low from the beginning already. The numerous attempts to insert black humor completely miss their effect and Franck Richard also doesn't make full use of the morbid set pieces and filming locations. The ghouls (and the brief info we receive of their background) compensate for part of the disappointment, though. They're very disturbing and petrifying monsters to behold. They actually look quite Clive Barkeresque, if you ask me. There's some decent acting as well, most notably from Yolande Moreau as "La Spack" and the terrific Philippe Nahon, whom genre fanatics will certainly recognize immediately from "Haute Tension", "Irréversible", "Seul Contre Tous" and "Calvaire".

But then again we would have missed out on a very suspenseful and very good beginning of this movie. But somewhere after one third of the movie it changes gears drastically ... and unfortunately it looses almost all of its drive. Movies that change "lanes" or "gears" are not uncommon (the original From Dusk til Dawn being the most recognizable), but in this instance it just does not work in favor of the movie.It should have stayed with the humor and pace it established at the beginning instead of trying to experiment too much. Sometimes a few glimpses of that shine through in the latter part of the movie. Still not enough to make this worth-while and a very disappointing ending concludes the whole thing. A shame then, but maybe the director can and will come up with something better next time around.

I wonder whether the script for this one was complete before filming began or whether they just made things up as they went along. The film is a tonal mish-mash, falling into three distinct segments of notably varying seriousness, starting as a coarsely comic affair it then moves into dark "woman in peril" territory, ending in the realms of loopy siege horror. Fortunately things are underpinned by a fine lead, inspired villain and constant dark ambiance that is rather chilling at times. We follow the attractive young Charlotte Massot, driving across France when she picks up a long-haired hitcher. Stopping off at a roadside restaurant they narrowly miss getting raped before Charlottes new friend goes missing and things get worse from here. The film combines numerous backwoods horror tropes into one tasty brew, geographic isolation and cultural isolation with all character bar the heroine being rather strange, threat of being raped, threat of being eaten, broad characters and wonky dialogue, all dealt out with mania that never winks at the audience, no matter what the cliché. Handy performances give this one a big leg up, Emilie Duquenne is a delightful lead, tough but convincingly frayed when things get nasty, and affectingly traumatised when her ordeal gets nasty. Eric Godon gives suitably greased up and shifty vibes as the hitchhiker, while Philip Nahon plays things broad as a dirty minded cop. Highest marks go to Yolande Moreau as physically imposing, fearsomely tough restaurant owner La Spack, homely looks and unwieldy size hiding creepy malevolence and impressive vigor. Director Franck Richard largely plays things unflashy but has some imaginative flair, the film is focused less on action or big setpieces than mood, with plenty of time spent highlighting the grim and grimy art direction, bleak surroundings and atmospheric outdoor conditions. Some gore, though the gore scenes are around just long enough to be appreciable rather than dwelt on. Score and sound design brood, erupting in industrial pounding when events really hot up, a good complement to the visuals. Tighter handling would have helped this one, also some better dialogue but altogether I had a great time. Well worth a look for loopy backwoods/hicksploitation horror enthusiasts.