THE SOUL EATER is a new horror thriller from France (org. title: Le Mangeur d’Âmes) from a very familiar genre filmmaker duo. I was hoping this would be good, but it was actually better than I expected. Read our full The Soul Eater movie review here!
THE SOUL EATER is a new movie screening at Fantasia 2024. It’s a horror-thriller from France (org. title: Le Mangeur d’Âmes) and is a product of the genre filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo.
Instead of going down a supernatural or paranormal path, folklore is used to help control people. Ultimately, as always, the cruelest creatures are humans. The runtime is 1 hour and 48 minutes, which isn’t too long. Be warned though, the ending is brutal!
Continue reading our The Soul Eater movie review below.
Smalltown horror mystery
In this French horror thriller, we meet two very different investigators as they arrive in the small mountain town of Roquenoir. However, this used to be a bustling town but a new highway has resulted in very little traffic and visitors and jobs disappearing.
Those who remain are the ones who couldn’t get out. In this French mountain town, the two investigators are looking into different cases that appear to be connected.
At first, they approach their cases differently, but they acknowledge each other’s work. One is a murder case and the other is a case of children gone missing. As they are working in this small town, even more murders happen and more children disappear.
Brutal cases connect
The two investigators are Commander Elisabeth Guardiano (Virginie Ledoyen) and Captain of the Gendarmerie Franck De Rolan (Paul Hamy).
She arrives to look into a married couple’s grisly murder and he’s from the Department of Alarming Disappearances hoping to track down a group of missing children. Quickly it becomes apparent their cases are connected by something called “The Soul Eater”.
Actually, this is “just” the local boogeyman legend meant to keep kids from wandering off into the woods. But is this creature a myth or has something brought it into this world?!
The Soul Eater screening at Fantasia 2024.
The Soul Eater sees directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo return to their earlier days of filmmaking which is a very good thing. I was not a fan of their previous movie The Deep House which I felt was not up to their standards.
With The Soul Eater, we’re back to the style of their modern classic Inside, where people act and react in strange and brutal ways. At times, this new movie even reminded me of the Spanish horror thriller The Nameless due to the dark mystery.
The French filmmaker duo of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo also previously made Leatherface and Kandisha. To me, this is one of their Top 3 movies and I hope they continue along this style for their next films.
The Soul Eater is reviewed as part of our Fantasia 2024 coverage.
Details
Directors: Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo
Writers: Annelyse Batrel, Ludovic Lefebvre
Cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Paul Hamy, Virginie Ledoyen
Plot
When violent and gruesome deaths starts plaguing a small mountain village, an old legend about a malevolent creature resurfaces.
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