BAMBOO REVENGE

*

Directed by Edgar Marie.

Starring Audrey Pirault, Sophie Maréchal, Constantin Vidal, Jimony Ekila, Paul Deby.

Horror, France, 87 minutes.

Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - World Premiere

The hook to this French revenge thriller is seeing three aggressive men tied to the ground and becoming skewered as a certain type of bamboo planted underneath them swiftly rises and tears through their bodies in bloody fashion. It is a conceit straight out of a torture movie that leaves you wondering what tricks Edgar Marie has up his sleeve to make it stretch out to 87 minutes here.

Not much as it turns out. He weaves in a before and after narrative that details how Jules (Constantin Vidal), Sam (Jimony Ekila) and Victor (Paul Deby) end up bound to the ground after flirting with Eve (Audrey Pirault) and Iris (Sophie Maréchal) the night before at an outdoor club. Now Eve, a highly resourceful bamboo specialist, is demanding answers to where Iris has vanished to, after last being seen with the three men the night before.

Despite the ticking clock and the potential for grisly death by bamboo elements, there is very little here to grab the attention. Shot in uninspired fashion the film fails on so many other fronts. The mystery is weak, resolving itself in a completely unsatisfying fashion and the hook of the film that has lured us in is abandoned completely just before the one hour mark.

Also flimsily constructed is the film's weak commentary of violence against women and general sexism. It provides a weak excuse for this female driven revenge movie to exist at all. Watching bamboo grow in real time would be a more rewarding experience than this.

Iain MacLeod