Part of Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair
American newlyweds Dr. Shane and June Brown (Vincent Gallo and Tricia Vessey) travel to Paris for their honeymoon. Once there, Shane begins a search for his former medical colleague Leo (Alex Descas), who may have information or a cure for the tropical virus that has transformed Leo’s wife (Béatrice Dalle) into a murderous sexual carnivore — and may soon do the same to Shane.
“Bringing her unique sensibility to the horror genre, Denis keeps the dialogue to a minimum and crafts a low-key, seductively opaque love story out of gore and gristle, with intimate scenes that are simultaneously tender and horrific…. Denis creates a horror film unlike any other, buttressing the shocks with an eye and an ear for beauty.” —Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club (Mar 29, 2002)
“A moody, troubling work, masterfully photographed, that drifts from one gray Parisian incident to another in the rootless spirit of Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch… A haunting and terrifying film. It’s also a film of wonderful spaces and silences.” —Andrew O’Hehir, Salon (Mar 6, 2002)