DVD review
Directed by Kim Chapiron
Starring Vincent Cassel, Olivier Bartélémy, Roxane Mesquida, Nico Le Phat Tan, Leïla Bekhti
Release date 26 March 2007

A group of boorish friends meet a beautiful girl who invites them to stay with her in the country. Once there, they discover that the decaying manor is also home to a perverted housekeeper called Joseph…

Satan is Kim Chapiron’s attempt to create the Gallic answer to Hostel. Yet the film never quite fulfils its initial potential. Chapiron works hard to set up an uneasy atmosphere – rooms crammed with dolls, enigmatic shots of Joseph’s pregnant wife, a great scene where village hicks join the friends in a local watering hole... But there’s too much set-up and not enough pay-off, and, when things do eventually turn nasty, it’s nowhere near nasty enough (not to mention rather confusing).

It’s fine to devote so much time to establishing characters if the intention is to secure our sympathy before the terror strikes, as The Descent and Wolf Creek did so well. But the young leads in Sheitan are entirely obnoxious and unlikeable, and it doesn’t take long before their sub-American Pie high-jinx become tiresome.

In fact it comes to the point where we actively want them be horribly sliced up into thin strips - a desire which, unfortunately, is never quite satisfied.

Satan does contain a great grotesque performance from a barely recognisable Cassel. With his bad teeth and bulging eyes the movie comes to life whenever he’s on screen. But Cassel aside, Satan mostly just succeeds in being devilishly irritating.

In terms of extras, you get a making of feature and the short film Vampire starring Monica Bellucci (and which makes a fleeting appearance on a TV screen in Satan). Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 5/10
Though occasionally creepy, Satan never quite works as either a horror or a comedy.