UK Release date 4th April.

Aside from fine wines and potent cheeses, France has in recent years been a reliable supplier of one thing in particular - quality horror flicks. This side of the new millennium has seen Gallic horror really come to the fore, with great and gruesome titles such as Inside, Frontiers and Martyrs giving genre fans much to scream about.

Naturally then, this reviewer finds himself more than just a little excited when word comes of a new addition to the French horror canon. The latest fright flick to emerge from across the Channel is Caged, the debut feature from director Yann Gozlan. With the bar having been set so high by Martyrs and other recent French horror fare, will Caged serve to strengthen the formidable reputation of Gallic gore or will it prove to be something of a letdown?

The answer, unfortunately, is the latter. In stark comparison to the films of directors such as Pascal Laugier (Martyrs), Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Inside), Caged is a deeply run-of-the-mill affair which borrows liberally from other horror movies to little effect.

The set-up of Caged sees a trio of humanitarian aid workers, posted somewhere in war torn Former Yugoslavia, taking a decidedly wrong turn as they attempt to make their way home, finding themselves ambushed by a group of armed men. Things go from bad to worse and the three are taken to a makeshift prison where they’re bundled into cages and left to fear what terrible fate awaits them.

Now let’s get this right up front - Caged is by no means a terrible movie. It’s nicely photographed, competently put together and the acting is solid and believable. However the problem with Yann Gozlan’s movie is that it’s just so very mediocre. Sure it combines elements of films such as Paradise Lost, Hostel, Martyrs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but it does very little with its borrowings and manages to be far less entertaining than any of the afore-mentioned movies (and I’m not even much of a fan of Paradise Lost).

Fans of the new wave of French horror will also no doubt be disappointment by the paltry quantities of the red stuff on offer in Caged. The promo material for this movie left me expecting a fairly grueling, visceral viewing experience, with the press release claiming it to be an “unforgettable and gruesomely relentless example of extreme cinema at its most terrifying”. Now, whoever wrote that clearly must have seen a different film because Caged really is pretty forgettable stuff.

The bare bones disc contains only a trailer, which hardly serves to recommend the package.

Ewan Cant.

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