The Grimmest Fairy Tale: “THE SOUL EATER” (2024) Feasts On The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival! (REVIEW)
Yep. Definitely a Soul Eater.
Julian Maury and Alexandre Bustillo are the xenomorphs of horror directors. The duo attach themselves to a subgenre, exploring its corners almost to the fullest, in order to make a film rooted in a given category, while maintaining their own identities as filmmakers. They’ve tackled home invasions (“Inside”), vampires (“Livide”), urban legends (“Kandisha”), coming-of-age horror (“Among the Living”), and even an underwater haunted house film (“The Deep House”). But no matter which sandbox they play in, you know a Maury/Bustillo joint when you see it. Their latest is “The Soul Eater,” a procedural that ventures into some of their darkest territory yet.
Roquenoir is a rural French town that’s so close to desolation, that the mayor can barely keep the school open. Elizabeth (Virginie Ledoyen) and Franck (Paul Hamy) are newly arrived cops investigating the same grisly double murder. She’s there to solve it, and he believes it’s related to the disappearances of several children from the region. They aren’t initially partners, but they team up to work on the case when they find a survivor: young Evan (Cameron Bain), the child of the murdered couple. When asked if he knows who killed his parents, he stares glossy-eyed and claims it was “the Soul Eater,” a local legend. If you venture too far into the woods, the creature will, yes, eat your soul, leaving you to return to the town and commit heinous acts. It’s a popular refrain from the town’s children, and even some of the adults appear to mention it with a shiver. Surely there’s no monster on the outskirts of town feasting on the lives of the populace, right? Then who’s leaving those carved totems around?
Ledoyen (L) and Hamy (R) wondering what they got into.
For most of the film’s runtime, Maury and Bustillo (as well as credited screenwriters Annelyse Batrel and Ludovic Lefebvre) are eager to check the boxes of the procedural genre to an almost distracting degree. You’ve got the incompetent local police, the townsfolk that distrust outsiders, the moment when the skeptical Elizabeth opens herself up to Franck, solidifying their bond, and even a scene where Franck chases a suspect neither he nor the audience can identify. If not for the disturbing murder they attempt to solve, one might think the directors have eschewed the horror genre completely. After all, this marks their first adaptation of a novel from author Alexis Laipsker, who doesn’t seem to match their “freak.” This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
If anything, “The Soul Eater” might be the darkest film Maury and Bustillo have made yet, though not necessarily the bleakest (that title is still “Inside” by a kilométre). It’s an important distinction since this is one of their rare films that doesn’t leave you drained by the end. Though our leads aren’t the same, the first season of “True Detective” looms large as Elizabeth and Franck investigate Rouqenoir and its secrets. What they find borders on folk horror, and the subject matter delves into unspeakable evil that’s still firmly rooted in the French Extremity movement they came from. Since they’re still working with longtime editor Baxter and “Kandisha” DP Simon Roca, they clearly know what they want. The skies are continuously gray, and the long-abandoned hospital stands above town, daring anyone to come and see what’s inside. Both Hamy and Ledoyen are convincing as cops with tragic backstories (gotta have those) who are determined, yet terrified about what they might find. Elizabeth remains guarded as long as she can, but Franck is a volcano waiting to explode at anyone who gets in his way. There’s a disturbing interrogation scene late in the film that almost made me retch.
Is the Soul Eater just a fairy tale meant to scare the populace and keep kids out of the nearby woods? Is it a demon that needs to be fed by Roquenoir’s inhabitants to keep the dying town alive? Maury and Bustillo keep you guessing, and while the answers are wholly satisfying (the identity of a key villain is obvious from the start), the depths of depravity they unleash stick with you. But would it kill them to make a musical next time? Just kidding. Sort of.
Screened at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
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