Sheitan

As much as the general French population want to deny it, France, and Paris in particular, is one of the great multicultural cities of Europe, mostly thanks to its past colonialism. The youth are far more integrated and are developing their own new cultural identities with ties to Africa. This French horror film takes its title from the the Muslim word for the devil and features three young friends (one African, one Vietnamese and one French).

During an evening out at a nightclub, the three men along with a young Algerian girl, meet up with beautiful girl, who invites them all back to her parent's home in the French countryside. What the trio were anticipating to be a weekend of sex and drugs starts turning weird when their path is blocked by a herd of goats and they are rescued by Joseph, the house's strange caretaker, played by Vincent Cassel in a superbly manic scene-stealing performance. The film is worth seeing just for Cassel alone.


Eve (Roxanne Mesquida) is a bit of an anomaly in the village in that she is the only one that doesn't look like she is from a French version of Deliverance. We soon discover that not only do the people look strange, but their behaviour is too, which must surely be a strong case for the mixing of races. Before long everything starts to get really weird, further bolstered by rooms full of dismembered dolls and Joseph's perpetually grinning face.

It's not a straight-forward horror film in the traditional sense, as it mixes elements of of the surreal, humour and sex (it is a French film after all), without jump-out-of-your-seat scares. Towards the end the film you are left wondering what is real and what is not, only to be brought back to the shocking reality of what is happening to them, with a truly bizarre ending.

Sheitan is showing as part of Best of the Fest on Sunday 27 August at 20:45 at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh.