True desires

When I was about eight years old, my brother and I watched this French horror film in the middle of the night. This movie would haunt me for years in various ways. Firstly, it would haunt my young brain because I thought it was very scary. In a French prison, four convicts find a journal behind a brick in the wall of their cell. The mysterious journal is filled with spells and rituals of dark magic. Strange things start happening when they start reading it out loud. They start thinking it might become their ticket to freedom since none of them have any prospects of getting out anytime soon. Unfortunately, the price of freedom turns out to be steep. Secondly, I desperately wanted to rewatch this movie to check if it really was that scary (I had also forgotten the ending), but finding it was hell. My 8-yearold self didn't think of writing down the name of the movie. Luckily, after a lot of research I managed to find its name: Maléfique (English: Evil).

Carrère, a CEO convicted for cooking the books, gets thrown in a prison cell with Marcus, a bodybuilder, Lasalle, a murderer, and Pâquerette, a mentally disabled man who ate his six-month old baby sister. Carrère struggles to fit in because he thinks he'll be out in no time. Unfortunately for him, it turns out his wife decided to divorce him and let him rot in jail. This results in him not being able to see his son anymore which makes him even more desperate to get out. Luckily Carrère still has his son's Action Man. The prisoners all have one wish in common: being free again. Their wish might be granted by the journal they found behind the loose brick in their cell. Yet, this isn't their true desire and it seems the journal knows this. Carrère desperately wants to see his son again, Marcus suffers of gender dysphoria and wishes for gender-affirming surgery, and Lasalle desires knowledge. These desires will end up standing in their way to freedom.

While they're deciphering the weird texts and symbols in the journal strange things start happening: Pâquerette gets all of his fingers shaved off in the middle of the night. In the meantime, Lasalle keeps secrets from the other prisoners. He knows who wrote the journal and what happened to him, but he won't let this get in his way of finding more knowledge. Eventually Pâquerette gets killed by the journal as he tried to eat it causing Marcus to throw the journal away. After some time they get another prisoner to join their quarters: Hippolyte Picus. This strange character brings back the journal to the cell and shows the trio how to use the journal to get their freedom back. However, when they try to escape their true desires stand in their way. Marcus gets his genitals sliced off because the book shows that a man and a woman are necessary for the next ritual. Lasalle dies after having all knowledge enter his brain. Finally, Carrère turns into his son's Action Man allowing him to see his son.

I feel the movie starts off strong, but falls a bit flat in the ending. It's a bit sad that the journal and its dark magic turn out to be nothing more than a monkey's paw. However, I do feel it's interesting how their true desires stood in the way of their freedom. This showcases how humans are complex beings: even though it seems logical to wish for freedom when locked up in prison humans will still have a truer desire. The limited sets are definitely a strong point in this film as it helps create the feeling of being confined to a prison cell. Because of the great camera work it also doesn't feel boring or claustrophobic. I'm very happy I managed to find the movie so I could rewatch it anytime I'd like. It's definitely on my list of favorite horror films.

Thank you, and take care.