Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s feature debut, Inside, set the bar high in terms of audience expectations. A visceral home invasion movie saturated in blood offered up unparalleled tension. Their follow up, Livid, was a very different movie altogether and more dreamlike in style, but it never received a proper release stateside so it remains mostly unseen. Next came Among the Living, Maury and Bustillo’s Amblin and Stephen King inspired story that once again took a different stylistic approach than previous films. The filmmakers drew inspiration from Goonies and Stand by Me, which means a much less violent affair than Inside. But this is still a Maury and Bustillo joint, which means it’s the most brutal Amblin inspired movie you’ll ever see.
Inside’s Beatrice Dalle appears in the gruesome prologue as a pregnant wife and mother in a somewhat rundown looking home, one that trick or treaters approach with severe hesitation. Dalle’s character snaps, tries to kill her husband, then her young son, and finally turns the knife on her pregnant belly before slitting her own throat. It’s a blood-soaked echo of Inside. As the film shifts to the present day, the tone and pace changes. We’re introduced to three school boys, tight knit friends who skip school to slack off and get into some mischief. They then stumble across an abandoned film studio lot and bear witness to a captive woman being dragged by a masked assailant. That masked assailant noticed them, too, and will stop at nothing to snuff out any and all witnesses to his crimes.
What if the kids from Stand by Me came across the demented family from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? That’s the thesis Maury and Bustillo seem to be addressing here. Because the protagonists are young kids, they tone down the violence and bloodshed. That’s not saying much, though. All of the characters face mortal peril in this movie, from infant to adult alike. While the deaths of any kids are tamped down, Maury and Bustillo still show their teeth with the adult demises.
Key special makeup effect artist Sabine Fevre, who previously worked with the filmmakers on Inside and Livid (as well as extreme horror Frontier(s)), teams up once more to deliver some gnarly moments. Also on the special makeup effects team is Olivier Alfonso, who’s handled makeup and gore effects on notable genre films like Raw, The Horde, As Above, So Below, Knife + Heart, and recently helmed his first gory feature Girls with Balls. In other words, while Among the Living may not be nearly as grisly as Inside, the moments of gore that do appear really pack a punch.
The strange mashup of nostalgic ‘80s Amblin mood and Texas Chainsaw Massacre grit likely makes for a jarring experience. The main narrative feels bookended by two brutal segments that hearken back to the visceral terror of Inside. But Maury and Bustillo aren’t really interested in retreading Inside; each new film of theirs is one dedicated to paying homage to the horror filmmakers that shaped them while exploring new corners of the genre. That means each film is vastly different than previous films, but with their very distinct stamp of brutality and style.
Among the Living is tame by typical extreme horror comparison, but for a Stand by Me type movie starring young preteens, it’s the most vicious, blood soaked coming-of-age story of all.