Calvaire (2004)

Director: Fabrice Du Welz

Starring: Laurent Lucas

More info: IMDB

Tagline: Some people would kill for company.

Plot: A few days before Christmas, traveling entertainer Marc Stevens is stuck at nightfall in a remote wood in the swampy Hautes Fagnes region of Liège, his van conked out. An odd chap who's looking for a lost dog leads Marc to a shuttered inn; the owner gives Marc a room for the night. Next day, the innkeeper, Mr. Bartel, promises to fix the van, demands that Marc not visit the nearby village, and goes through Marc's things while the entertainer takes a walk. At dinner that night, Bartel laments his wife's having left him, and by next day, Marc is in a nightmare that may not end.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.


If you like...

A) European horror (especially from the last ten years)

and/or

B) the 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' kind of horror film where you wonder if it's possible if the main character will survive and, if he/she does, will he/she want to?...


then you're going to LOVE this neat & stylish little number from Belgium. It made me feel uncomfortable in the way the rednecks of DELIVERANCE did.


This is a very dark film with some delicious black comedy. It's cruel and cold. The atmosphere is ripe with dispare and hopelessness. The desolate locale and winter season only add to the edge this film delivers. It's the kind of film we don't see made here in America. The Hollywood machine would require beefed-up sound effects for everything, cats jumping out of kitchen cupboards and a big boss fight that ends with the survivor saying something witty or a callback to an earlier line. This is good stuff, man, good stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.