Horror Movie Review: Ouvert 24/7 (2010)

At a backroad restaurant in France, 3 people share stories to try & stay awake…. yeah, that’s the story that links the 3 separate parts of this anthology, not exactly an exciting premise.

Open 24/7 is a French subtitled movie that tries to tell 3 serious stories with jarring shifts in tone for brief shots of extreme gore, violence & gross out moments.

The first is about a gay woman who entices single, desperate men to come back to her flat where she & her young lover kill them, butcher the carcass & eat the meat. The younger one is mentally abused by the older & is reaching her limit. Meanwhile a policeman who had his penis cut off by the lesbian killer is desperate to find her & extract his revenge.

This first story stands out for 3 particular scenes, all them designed to gross the viewer out. One sees an extensive butchering of a body in close-up detail, another is oral sex involving periods & a tampon in the mouth & the last one is a shot of the mangled penis of the cop.

This story is so forgettable, boring & the acting laughable. It’s attempt to tell an abusive relationship story falls flat thanks to sudden changes in tone.

The second story opens with a woman reading a bedtime story to a young child, it’s a fairy-tale that gets darker & darker as she goes on. It quickly becomes apparent that the woman in question is not quite right. Sure enough, she is some sort of witch who feeds on children.

This story is a wacky one to say the least with strange characters, the private detective hunting her & the salesman that shows up at her door are so ill-placed that you can almost see the writers trying to drag some sort of sense of this mess. I just don’t get it…what was the point? She takes in a child who seems to know what she is & wants to be part of it but nothing is resolved at the end. Abrupt & confusing with some very strange sound effects that tries to give it a light-hearted feel but fails miserably.

The third & thankfully the final tells the story of 2 sisters in Germany living on a remote farm under their abusive father’s rule. The younger of the sisters has learning difficulties & suffers the brunt of her father’s abuse. Finally snapping the older sister attacks him & together they murder him by suffocation.

Finally free, the older of the sisters decides they should go to France & see a singer called, Marina Moon who the younger adores. Once there though they discover they don’t have enough money to pay for tickets. While sleeping on the streets they are approached by an older lady who offers them money for work.

Taking one look at the woman it’s clear just what kind of work she has for them. It’s not long before the younger sister is being prostituted out for the enjoyment of a local priest!

Fun movie, huh?

Still, they get enough money to see Marina Moon through this & we are treated to a really long song by the singer (she’s talented but man, is it boring). As the song comes to a close the younger sister reaches into their bag of belongings & pulls out a pistol which she puts in her mouth & pulls the trigger.

A nice close-up of her mangled face is the only bit of horror/gore you really get in this story but it comes out of nowhere so is pretty shocking to see. It’s kind of sad as well, this story has more character development then any of the others & I felt sympathy for the younger sister.

It’s a story that feels oh so French, dark & moody with plenty of sexual abuse.

Of the three it’s the better one but that really isn’t saying much as it’s also the shortest. It’s the only one that makes sense & is actually tied up nicely at the end.

With the tales told the final scenes of the over-arching story (if you can call it that) sees two women pull up to the restaurant & go through a painful conversation that is supposed to reference the movie Thelma & Louise. It makes no sense at all & I almost reached for the off button at this stage. Thankfully the credits roll & the torture ended.

A mess, an absolute mess of a movie that is barely entertaining & only manages to live up to its horror tag by throwing in random flashes of extreme gore & violence. Avoid.