Frontier(s)

Classic hixploitation that relies mostly on blood, violence and brutality. This time we follow several young people being punished by their previous disorderly behaviour. Some of the violent scenes are impressively realistic, others are impressively over-the-top, but they are numerous, so the film is never boring. There’s no point dealing with the plot, it’s the same as other similar films, but in terms of execution, there are many effective scenes, which makes Frontier(s) something quite nice to watch. After a rewatch in 2016: Really, there’s no point dealing with the plot, in the struggle between two extremists, Gens was unable to draw any interesting insight. But there’s plenty of gore, and it’s great. (03/17/2008)

Constructed primarily on the premise of Eli Roth’s poorly made Hostel, Frontier(s) offers a tangle of plot twists slavishly copied from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre flicks. Add mutant children in the cellars and the treatment of a French historical complex from the rivalry with Germany. Brutal butchery with characters on our side whom we don’t care a fig about and characters on the other side that do not evoke horror, but embarrassment. (06/08/2008)

Ultimately a 3, even though it's really screwed up potential. I haven't seen such a bunch of losers as bad guys in a long time. The fault of the script, which had a tendency to wrap the carnage in at least some sort of storyline and hopefully point out some contemporary issues, which is just incredibly unnecessary. The fossil who acted as the "father of the family" deserves a special chapter. The script asks him to do such nonsense that it makes the film become truly absurd at times. The downright stupid behavior of the characters ("Now I'm going to kill you!" and the like) and the cretinous illogic (there's always a pickaxe, hammer, or axe lying around when needed; the main character takes several horrible beatings from 150-pound dudes that would simply make a normal person cease to exist, and leave virtually no consequences for her) bring the film down terribly. I would also have a few reservations about the direction. Gens knows how to set a scene and construct a spectacular shot, but unfortunately his filter jerking is all too noticeable and the action scenes are opaque due to overblown editing. The three stars, then, are for the utterly fascinating and well-crafted gore (the axe-and-circular saw scene is one of the greatest fatalities to be seen in cinema for quite some time), which the French simply know how to do. (07/18/2009)

A cheap French answer to overseas exploitation that goes to the very limit of audience tolerance. In visually frenzied garb, Gens skillfully mixes fear (the shaft) with unrestrained bursts of violence (the rest of the film), and the only thing that brings it down is his own script, which causes problems, especially at the end thanks to an unnecessary Nazi motif. I wouldn't look for any perspective or humor (as others do) here. Gens definitely brought it to a winning end with seriousness. It’s unfortunate about the talent muted by the Hollywood air in the subsequent Hitman adaptation. (04/04/2008)

After watching it for the second time, I found that Frontiers is quite an underrated film, even though everything works almost excellently there. This naziohixploitation mainly offers the desired explicitness and a lot of disgust, although it sticks to some of its limits and does not cross the boundaries. Apart from the intense gore, the visuals are also a great attraction. I enjoyed the film a lot and the excellent music contributed to everything. The dinner shootout scene gave me goosebumps. (06/13/2012)