Eden By Name... Hell By Nature (Eden Log (DVD))

Member Name: GoFigure

Product:	Eden Log (DVD)
Date:	27/05/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fascinating story, brilliant acting... the atmosphere captures the imagination.

Disadvantages: Perhaps a somewhat slow beginning.

Director: Franck Vestiel
Screenplay: Pierre Bordage & Franck Vestiel
Genre: Sci-Fi - Horror - Mystery - Thriller
Country: France
Certification: 15+
Language: English
DVD Release: 28th July, 2008


MAIN CAST:

Clovis Cornillac [Tolbiac]


In a futuristic world, a man wakes up deep inside a cave. Suffering from amnesia, he has no idea who he is, how he came to be inside the cave, or where he is.

Clawing his way out of the pool of mud he was nearly halfway buried in, he carefully makes his way toward the only source of light... a flashing beacon in the distance. Between him and the intermittent light is a cloak of darkness filled with decaying corpses.

Managing to make his way to the beacon, which is attached to a corpse, he pulls it off and uses it to take a look around. All he sees are seemingly endless tunnels, crooked and twisted, winding their way through the bowels of the earth. The temperature inside the cave is close to freezing... the man pulls a jacket off a corpse and bundles up in it before making his way down a darkened tunnel.

As the man slowly makes his way through the tunnels, he comes across what used to be some sort of laboratory. The walls have been torn down, and a dead scientist is still clutching the controls to some sort of computer which is somehow activated when the survivor begins fiddling with buttons. A woman's calm voice tears through the silence, and the survivor listens to what would have been the final conversation between the dead scientist and the world above. Nothing makes any sense to him.

Continuing his journey into the bowels of the earth, he hears a loud, angry growling, the sound of a very large predator, and he panics...

'Eden Log' is all about one man's incredible journey through a hellish labyrinth of tunnels in order to get to the surface... where he has no idea what awaits him. The tunnels resemble cemeteries with dead people partly buried in the mud - a mud that is thick and cloying - and the growling of predators is a constant as they hunt him down.

'Eden Log' is absolutely fascinating, the storyline is a mesmerising and mind-boggling journey through the unknown - watching it is like watching a videogame, something along the lines of 'Resident Evil', but so much better.

The atmosphere is incredibly chilling - the character's breath comes out in puffs of greyish steam, and the viewer can almost feel the cold, the cloying dampness, and the constant growling that reverberates throughout the tunnels is downright unsettling. There is a vileness to the setting, an evilness that is pervasive and constant throughout... it never once wavers except to draw the viewer deeper into the quagmire.

Although 'Eden Log' very much comes across as a low budget film, don't be fooled by first impressions... dig deeper, pay attention, because everything is a façade, there is nothing cheap or simplistic about this movie. The director wanted to create something different, something unique, and although he hasn't fully managed the uniqueness because 'Resident Evil' and 'Silent Hill' beat him to it, he did manage to create an atmosphere that remains unrivalled.

From black and white scenes to in-your-face boldly coloured images meant to seize the viewer's attention, the entire movie has been cleverly created in order to make the viewer not only see what is intrinsically a series of hellish images, but to feel them as well. The tension and suspense literally ooze from every scene, and although there are very few actors in this movie, the main character is so incredibly fascinating that he more than makes up for an irrelevant emptiness caused by a scarce cast... unless you count all the corpses!

Clovis Cornillac, who plays the survivor suffering from amnesia, is absolutely incredible... as far as I'm concerned, he's very much a newcomer, however, where experience counts, he's appeared in over thirty movies, including 'Asterix at the Olympic Games', 'Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure', 'The Snake' and 'A Very Long Engagement'. Sorry to say... I haven't seen any of these movies, but I will definitely, after having watched Clovis in this movie, make every effort to remedy the situation. Watching Clovis claw his way out of the mud and fight his way to the surface was an exhilarating and well-spent 98 minutes.

The storyline itself is extremely simple, so simple that it is virtually impossible to write a detailed review without giving the entire story away, which is why I have only skimmed the surface. In fact, the plot is so simple that the viewer falls into the; "What just happened?" trap at the very end, and unless careful attention is paid, it is easy to lose yourself in the quagmire of questions and doubts that ensue.

I watched this movie twice... in a row... because I was uncertain of the ending. It was only after the second viewing that I realised that it was I who had originally, with my questioning and too-eager imagination, complicated what was, in reality, a very simple ending. In my defence, I will say that I was not alone in having drawn a blank at the end of my first viewing... five minutes of surfing the internet brought up hundreds of people who had drawn a blank too and were begging for clarification!

Regardless of nearly-nonexistent dialogue and very few actors, this movie is an immaculate work of science fiction that contains strong elements of mystery, suspense, and a few spine-tingling moments that are thoroughly horrific.

Summary: A man wakes up with amnesia deep inside a cavern and attempts to make it back to the surface.