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Calvaire

Play trailer 1:15 Poster for Calvaire Released May 18, 2004 1h 34m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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47% Tomatometer 32 Reviews 50% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
A stranded singer falls victim to a dangerously unhinged innkeeper who is determined to keep him captive.
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Calvaire

Calvaire

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Critics Consensus

Calvaire (The Ordeal) has a certain amount of grim potential, but loses effectiveness by too often mistaking disturbing gore for genuine horror.

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Critics Reviews

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Wally Hammond Time Out [Du Welz's] art-house experimentation and performance-art approach to ensemble acting sacrifices plausibility in favour of increasingly pretentious surreal black comedy. Nov 16, 2011 Full Review Philip French Guardian The film is nasty and barely competent. Jan 20, 2007 Full Review Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness A glossy rehash that's far less interesting and frightening than the classics upon which it's unimaginatively modeled. Rated: C Jan 11, 2007 Full Review Arthur Goyaz Loud and Clear Reviews the movie stands out as an atmospheric piece with important things to say, but it always feels like an allegory rather than something authentic. Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 7, 2024 Full Review Ygraine Hackett-Cantabrana The Geek Show (UK) Calvaire is a hauntingly grim portrayal of the dangers that a misogynistic society provides for all genders, and with it’s violence, nihilism, and utter lack of hope, it’s a stalwart of the New French Extremity movement. Jul 9, 2024 Full Review Joel Harley Starburst Adjacent to the early noughties’ French extremist movement (see also: Martyrs, Inside, Haute Tension), Fabrice Du Welz’s backwoods horror film is surprisingly lacking its peers’ excessive gore but remains the most troubling of them all. Rated: 4/5 Oct 27, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Diana S Kind of a French take on a '70s backcountry slasher, which while not my favorite kind of horror movie, this is as good as any of them really. It's grotesque and macabre and at times absurd. Ultimately entertaining enough. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 12/17/24 Full Review Jerod S It's like a french version of "The Hills Have Eyes" - minus the grotesque facial features. The town this singer gets stuck in has a bunch of inbred dudes. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 08/13/24 Full Review GP M Creepy but not scary at all. I really did not enjoy this movie - the men weirdly dancing made no sense at all, as much of this debacle of a movie was senseless. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/17/23 Full Review colin m ("Calvaire" / "The Ordeal" ) I enjoyed it. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Calvaire (The Ordeal). Unsympathetic, strangely perverse and deeply unsettling. Yet beautifully shot, thematically complex and diabolically humorous. How many films have pulled that off? A film that has stuck with me for 15 years and one that probably took as long to fully appreciate. Genuinely dreadful. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/31/21 Full Review dave s The French horror film Calvaire starts off promisingly enough – a broken down van on a remote country road in the middle of the night and a decrepit country inn shrouded in fog and menace. Thanks to some effective lighting and quirky performances, the tension builds steadily as it slowly becomes apparent that something is amiss. Things fall apart just past the halfway point as Calvaire becomes some sort of weird offspring of Misery and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Sadly, there are some unintentional laughs (dig the dancing in the bar, not to mention the pet ‘dog'!!) which is never a good thing in a movie that is supposed to scare the hell out of you. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Calvaire

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Cast & Crew

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Fabrice Du Welz

Director

Laurent Lucas

Marc Stevens

Jackie Berroyer

Bartel

Philippe Nahon

Robert Orton

Jean-Luc Couchard

Boris

Gigi Coursigny

Madame Langhoff

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Calvaire

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Calvaire

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Movie Info

Synopsis A stranded singer falls victim to a dangerously unhinged innkeeper who is determined to keep him captive.
Director
Fabrice Du Welz
Producer
Michaël Gentile, Vincent Tavier, Eddy Géradon-Luyckx
Screenwriter
Fabrice Du Welz, Romain Protat
Distributor
Palm Pictures
Production Co
Backup Films, Studio Canal
Genre
Horror
Original Language
French (France)
Release Date (Theaters)
May 18, 2004, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
Feb 24, 2023
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 3, 2023
Box Office (Gross USA)
$2.6K
Runtime
1h 34m
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