Inside



""Open it, Sarah. Don't be afraid. You don't want that child. I'll take good care of him...""

- La Femme

Inside ("À l'intérieur") is a French slasher film released in 2007.

On a bleak, rainy day a pregnant photojournalist named Sarah Scarangelo is involved in a grisly two vehicle crash, an accident that kills her husband, Matthieu. Skipping ahead four months, the film depicts a now bitter, detached, and depressed Sarah being told by her doctor that she should go into labor the next day, Christmas. Preferring to be alone to wait out the inevitable birth, Sarah blows off her mother, Louise, and is given a lift home by her boss, Jean-Pierre, who she arranges to have drive her to the hospital the next morning.

As Sarah tries to get comfortable in her desolate little house, her attempts at rest and relaxation are interrupted by a knock at the door. A female voice (belonging to simply "La Femme") tells Sarah that she needs to use her phone, due to car trouble. A wary Sarah refuses to allow the visitor entry, and when they persist, Sarah claims her husband is sleeping upstairs, and does not want to be disturbed. Things turn terrifying when the woman refers to Sarah by name, and reveals she knows Sarah's husband is dead. As the woman stalks around outside, smashing a window, Sarah tries to take her picture, and calls the police. When a trio of officers arrive and look around, finding no trace of the menacing woman, they reassure Sarah before leaving, claiming they will send a unit over to check in on her later on, being unable to stay due to riots periodically breaking out throughout the area due to civil unrest.

Put at ease, at least somewhat, Sarah, after noticing what looks like the mysterious woman in the background of some old pictures she had taken, heads to bed, but is rudely awakened by the woman jabbing a large of scissors into her belly button. Managing to fight the intruder off, a bruised and bloodied Sarah locks herself in the bathroom, unable to warn Jean-Pierre or Louise (who she accidentally kills, thinking she was her attacker) when they stop by of the threat the woman poses. Obviously deranged, the woman eventually makes clear her intention to claim Sarah's baby, and will kill anyone who tries to stop her from cutting the infant out of the expectant mother's womb.

Noted as being prime example of Gorn, this picture has so much bloodshed it almost comes off as a non-comedic splatter film. Seriously, by the end, there is probably not one inch of Sarah's house that isn't soaked in blood and guts. Suffice to say, Nightmare Fuel and Nausea Fuel are in high supply.

This film provides examples of the following tropes:

 * Absurdly Youthful Mother: Louise doesn't look too much older than Sarah, and this was probably Jean-Pierre's thought when La Femme pretended to be Louise.
 * Accidental Murder: Hearing someone approach, Sarah attacks with a knitting needle, killing her own mother.
 * Adult Fear: Loosing their child to another woman is indeed a very deep-rooted fear for most women.
 * Aerosol Flamethrower: As La Femme leans over her and lights a cigarette, Sarah sprays her with a canister, setting her head on fire.
 * Alliterative Name: Sarah Scarangelo.
 * Ax Crazy: A more lucid, but no less violent, example.
 * Axe Before Entering: La Femme never succeeds in actually breaking through the washroom door, but does punch little holes in it with her scissors.
 * Blade On a Stick: Sarah creates a makeshift spear, though La Femme ends up being the wielder, using it to kill the final officer.
 * Blood From the Mouth
 * Blood Spattered Innocents: Sarah spends roughly ninety-percent of the film covered in blood.
 * Boom Headshot: The second officer's death.
 * Bowdlerized: The version available at most Blockbusters apparently cut out around seven minutes.
 * Camera Fiend: Sarah.
 * Camping a Crapper: As the second officer is helping Sarah out of the washroom, La Femme appears to blow his head off.
 * Cat Fight: Utterly averted. Despite being mainly about two women fighting each other, it's too brutal and too gory for the battles to be considered cute or sexy, especially when one of the fighters is pregnant.
 * Chained Heat: The third officer is forced to drag Abdel along by "a leash" he also attaches himself to while looking around Sarah's house.
 * Determinator: Sarah and La Femme.
 * Diabolus Ex Machina: Just as Sarah gains the upper hand, an officer that we were lead to believe La Femme had earlier killed turns out to still be alive, and in a deranged state he attacks Sarah, causing her to go into labor and become helpless.
 * Disappeared Dad: Sarah's father is never mentioned.
 * Duct Tape for Everything: After giving herself a tracheotomy, Sarah duct tapes the wound.
 * Eerie Pale Skinned Brunette: La Femme.
 * Enhance Button: Referenced.
 * Evil Is Petty: La Femme randomly kills Sarah's cat by crushing its head.
 * Eye Scream: The first officer's death; the third is also seems to be missing his eyes when he reappears.
 * Face Revealing Turn: Done with the deranged and disfigured third officer.
 * Facial Horror
 * Fade to Black
 * Final Girl: Sarah.
 * Flash Back: Near the end, the opening car crash is reshown from La Femme's perspective.
 * Foreign Remake: There have been plans for a North American remake, though they are progressing rather slowly.
 * For the Evulz: What Sarah claims is the mentioned rioters real motive; they're not protesting, just being destructive for it's own sake.
 * Freudian Excuse:
 * Good Smoking Evil Smoking: A bitch nurse (who does it in the hospital, no less) and La Femme are the only characters shown smoking.
 * Gorn: When the title credits play over rippling pools of blood with what appears to be fetuses in them, you know you're in for a messy ride.
 * Groin Attack: La Femme stabs Jean-Pierre in the crotch with her scissors.
 * Gross Up Close Up
 * Hates Being Touched: La Femme.
 * Heroic BSOD: What Sarah spends most of the film in.
 * High Pressure Blood
 * Hope Spot:.
 * Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday
 * Hospital Hottie: A nurse.
 * Ice Queen: The initial impression given by Sarah.
 * Impaled Palm: Done to Sarah.
 * Impractically Fancy Outfit: La Femme.
 * Improbable Weapon User: La Femme's primary weapons are a knitting needle and a pair of scissors.
 * Improvised Weapon: Early on, Sarah uses a lamp to bash La Femme, who later returns the favor by bludgeoning Sarah with a toaster.
 * Impromptu Tracheotomy: Louise's death.
 * Instant Drama Just Add Tracheotomy: Choking on her own blood, Sarah resorts to this.
 * I Never Told You My Name: "Your husband's not sleeping Sarah, he's dead."
 * Jerkass: The elderly hospital nurse.
 * Kill Em All
 * Les Cops Sportif
 * Man Bites Man: Sarah bites La Femme's lower lip off.
 * Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane: La Femme's line that Sarah already killed her once, along with Sarah being told that no one else survived the car crash, fuels this, along with the recovered officer's almost zombie-like appearance and behavior (though the filmmakers have apparently stated he's just supposed to be brain damaged).
 * Meaningful Background Event: La Femme appears wandering around several times, in a very Michael Myers-esque fashion.
 * Meganekko: Louise.
 * Mirrored Confrontation Shot
 * Nightmare Sequence: Sarah vomiting up her baby.
 * No Name Given: La Femme, and every officer.
 * Nothing Up My Sleeve: Where La Femme keeps most of her makeshift weapons.
 * Not Quite Dead: Jean-Pierre, and the third police officer.
 * Number of the Beast: The house number.
 * Ominous Fog
 * One Word Title
 * Orifice Evacuation: Sarah has a nightmare about her baby forcing its way out of her mouth.
 * Paint the Town Red
 * Peek a Bangs: La Femme.
 * Pet the Dog: Subverted. After petting and coddling the cat, La Femme crushes its skull in her bare hands, and casually throws the body aside.
 * Police Are Useless
 * Potty Failure: After holing up in the washroom, Sarah pees herself (or her water breaks, whichever).
 * Pregnant Badass: What Sarah is forced to become.
 * Precision F Strike
 * Raven Hair Ivory Skin: Sarah.
 * Reaction Shot: Mostly from the fetus.
 * Red Shirt: Abdel, a suspected vandal arrested by some officers sent check in on Sarah, was obviously added to the film just to up the bodycount.
 * Ripped From the Headlines: The backdrop of the Paris riots.
 * The Reveal:
 * Shirtless Scene: Imaginary Matthieu.
 * Shrine to The Fallen
 * Sickening Crunch: The cat getting its head crushed.
 * Sinister Silhouettes
 * Slashed Throat: Happens to Jean-Pierre.
 * Stalker Without a Crush
 * Stuffed in The Fridge: Matthieu.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Scissors, but they do miss... barely.
 * Title In: Four months later.
 * Token Minority: Abdel.
 * Too Dumb to Live: The officers.
 * Traumatic C Section: The Movie.
 * Troubled Backstory Flashback: A depressed Sarah imagines Matthieu caressing her, but this is cut short by a shot of him having his head smashed into a windshield.
 * Turn of the Millennium
 * Twisted Christmas
 * Two Faced: La Femme, after being burned.
 * Under Crank: Randomly used in a scene where La Femme lights up a cigarette.
 * Unnaturally Blue Lighting
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot
 * Wait Here
 * Weaponized Camera: Rather mundane instance of this, with Sarah using the flashes from her camera to navigate her dark house, and find La Femme.
 * Window Pain: Early on, La Femme smashes one of Sarah's windows as an intimidation tactic.
 * Womanin Black: La Femme.
 * Your Head Asplode: The second officer's death.
 * Your Head Asplode: The second officer's death.