Livid is a French horror film released in 2011. It is Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's follow-up to Inside. While there are some grisly moments, the film is considerably less gory than its predecessor.
It's young Lucie's first day as a trainee in-house caregiver. She visits Mrs. Jessel, an old woman who lies in cerebral coma, by herself, in her large desolate house. Learning by accident that Mrs. Jessel, a former dance teacher of repute, supposedly possesses a treasure somewhere in the house, Lucie and her friends William and Ben decide to search the house in the hope of finding it. At night, they get into the house, which reveals itself to be increasingly peculiar. Their hunt for Mrs. Jessel's treasure leads them into a horrifying supernatural series of events that will change Lucy forever...
Note: Given the nature of the film, spoilers are unmarked.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- And I Must Scream - Anna is stuck for years in a statue-like state. It's unclear how conscious she actually is.
- Undead Child - Anna is a child with an undead body which makes her existence miserable and dancing is the only pleasure she can enjoy.
- The Cameo - Béatrice Dalle, the star of Inside, has a brief cameo as Lucie's dead mother.
- Clockwork Creature - A flashback shows that Jessel implanted some sort of clockwork device in her daughter's back.
- Creepy Ballet - The villain is a ballet teacher who is also a vampire, and she and her daughter would feed on her students. Ballerina ghost mooks also feature at one point.
- Eye Scream - Anna and later Lucie have their eyes stapled shut.
- Grand Theft Me - Mrs. Jessel's plan is for Lucie and her daughter to switch bodies. And she succeeds, Anne is given a second chance at a human life in Lucie's body and Lucie is forced to cope with her new existence as an undead child.
- Our Vampires Are Different - They need blood to sustain themselves and are very miserable. They can't stand the sunlight as the sunlight makes them hover in the air and makes their skin crack. However Anne's face heals the second time out in the sun while body-swapped with Lucie. They can be revived after dying if their bodies aren't destroyed, however, damage to their bodies makes them harder to revive. They're not immortal as Mrs. Jessel is elderly and catatonic during the days.
- The Renfield - Mrs. Wilson appears to be this, procuring young children and killing them for blood for Mrs. Jessel.
- Taxidermy Terror - In addition to the usual stuffed heads on the walls, there also creepy dolls with animal heads that seem to have a life on their own.
