What are your boundaries?
Frontier(s) is a 2007 French horror film directed by Xavier Gens.
In the midst of a right-wing extremist being elected in Paris, riots spark the street. A group of thieves take advantage of the chaos to pull off a robbery before fleeing to a nearby hostel near the border. Unfortunately for them, the place is run by a group of neo-Nazi cannibals. Things get messy. Really messy.
The film was set to be part of the After Dark Horrorfest film festival but the MPAA slapped an NC-17 on it and, rather than edit the film, After Dark decided to give it an unrated limited theatrical release elsewhere.
This film provides examples of:
- Ax-Crazy: Goetz is a maniac to put it mildly.
- Arranged Marriage: Part of the family's way of extending their bloodline.
- Big Bad: Karl Von Geisler Sr. but he dies first.
- Bittersweet Ending: Yasmine survives and is able to leave the hostel after killing the Neo-Nazis minus Eva, but all of her friends are dead, she's arguably incredibly traumatized and the movie ends with her delivering herself to the police who stop her car.
- Bloody Handprint: Farid leaves one as he's boiled alive in the steam room.
- Body Horror: Plenty, but Farid's death comes to mind the most.
- Broken Heel: Von Geisler cuts the Achilles tendon of one of the thieves.
- Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: Thieves vs. Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style horror-film cannibals.
- Creepy Child: Eva. But she is also a Token Good Teammate.
- Children Are Innocent: Eva is naive and still believes her parents will come to pick her up.
- Crapsack World: France is depicted as this. In urban areas, an extreme rightist Prime Minister winning an election is sparking citywide riots, while the country has cannibalistic Nazis roaming the woods.
- Depraved Bisexual: Gilbrette and Klaudette are two sisters who seduce men to lure them to be killed and eaten by their Cannibal Clan breathren, and are willing to make out with each other to do the job.
- Dysfunctional Family: The cannibals frequently bicker with one another and seek the approval of the patriarch.
- Final Boss: Gilberte is the last member of the cannibal clan to face off against Yasmine.
- Final Girls: While movie technically has two final girls, neither fit the wholesome image of the final girl (at least by association). Yasmine is pregnant member of a group of thieves, and Eva is a kind but obedient member of the cannibalistic family that's killed Yasmine's companions.
- Fingore: A character's fingers are blown off with a shotgun.
- Gorn: It's not as gory as Inside but it's very brutal at times (though rated NC-17 by MPAA, it'd be R by modern standards).
- Forceful Kiss: Karl Jr. gives one to Yasmine.
- Heel–Face Turn: Eva follows this path. She's a kind, yet obedient, member of the family to start out with, but she switches allegiances when she saves Final Girl Yasmine from Karl by shooting him dead.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The family eats their victims.
- Inn of No Return: It's run by a family of cannibalistic neo-Nazis. Meaning, once a guest checks in, there's no checking out.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Alex, who after acting like a douche to everybody sacrifices himself to help Yasmine escape. He fails in the immediate aftermath and succeeds in the end.
- Nazi Grandpa: Karl Von Geisler Sr is a former Nazi from World War II.
- Noble Demon: Hans. He is no nice guy but he shows less malice than others and also is nice to Eva.
- One-Word Title: Frontier(s)
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Well, they're neo-Nazis, so what did you expect?
- The Quiet One: Hans only has a few lines of dialogue and spends most of his scenes silent.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: Karl Sr. gives a speech in German at the dinner table that is untranslated.
- Shout-Out: To The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), in particular the dinner scene near the end.
- The Sociopath: Karl von Geisler, Sr., a Nazi who fled to France and founded a hotel where he started a Cannibal Clan. He views his family as henchmen, only liking Karl Jr. because he's competent, and kidnapped a little girl to use as his personal Sex Slave.
- Take That!: Largely against Sarkozy-era France and many of its anti-Muslim policies.
- Traumatic Haircut: Yasmine has most of her hair cut off to be presentable for the rest of the family.
- The Unfavorite: Hans appears to be this.
- Villain Protagonist: The main characters are on the run after taking advantage of riots to rob a bank. Then they run into the Nazi Cannibal Clan, turning the film into Evil Versus Evil.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Goetz seeks his father's approval and is frustrated that he gets no respect.
- Your Head Asplode: Karl Jr.'s head explodes after being shot with a shotgun.
