Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 – French directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury are constantly pushing the horror genre in exciting new directions and crafting something different with each new feature. Inside is a staple of the New French Extremity movement, while their last movie, The Deep House, is an underwater haunted house film. Their latest, The Soul Eater, is different than anything they’ve done thus far. It’s a grisly and bleak police procedural film that’s an engaging slow burn.

Detective Elizabeth Guardiano (Virginie Ledoyen) investigates the disappearance of children in a remote French village. While on the case, she also encounters the brutal deaths of a few of the village’s residents. Minutes into the runtime, Elizabeth meets Franck (Paul Hamy). Little is known about him, however. Is he another detective? He acts like it, and though Elizabeth is initially resistant, the two end up working together. The dynamic between the leads is one of the film’s positives, with each bringing different skills to the case. Both Hamy and Ledoyen turn in solid performances.

For fans of Silene of the Lambs or Longlegs, this film will likely be a hit. Bustillo and Maury do exercise some restraint here compared to their other work. This isn’t nearly as bloody and vicious as Inside, but to be fair, their last few films aren’t as gruesome, either. Still, the crime scenes are quite gory and stomach-churning, though they’re rather spread out for the duration of the two-hour runtime. Still, those moments aren’t for anyone with a weak stomach, and they’re all the more shocking because there’s only three or four of them shown in all their gruesome detail.

This film also plays up French folklore, specifically the idea of “the soul eater,” a creature that lives in the woods, and if seen, inhabits the body of anyone who looks upon it. Elizabeth is skeptical such a creature exists, even if relics of the horned creature are found at a few of the crime scenes. Franck is at least open to the idea that such a monster exists, and the skepticism v. faith is another undercurrent of this film. It’s handled well. Meanwhile, one of the children Franck and Elizabeth encounter, Evan (Cameron Bain), just may have witnessed the creature and can hardly speak after the encounter and following the death of his parents

While The Soul Eater may play like a police procedural movie for about half the run time with dashes of horror and folklore mixed in, it takes a really dark turn in the last act. The clues are there, but the less that’s said about the ending, the better. Go into this one blind and be patient. The pacing is a bit slow, but the last act is worth the wait, leading to a rather devastating conclusion.

Bustillo and Maury continue to make challenging films. The Soul Eater is their most mature work to date. It’s a highly atmospheric and moody feature that’s part creature feature, part police procedural, with a sober ending.