by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

This year I have been trying to get more into “New French Extremity” films. Because I saw High Tension when I was far too young, and not a horror fan, this is another area I wrote off as being too gorey. However directors like Julia Ducournau and her film Raw began to change my opinion on this. Through all the blood and gore there is often a fascinating look into human nature, and oftentimes what it means to be a woman. So I’ve paid more attention to recommendations from my lovely horror community and sought out other directors and performers I love from this subgenre. So naturally I stumbled upon Béatrice Dalle, a truly unique and deadly screen presence who gives memorable performances in Lux Æterna, Trouble Every Day, and the focus of this piece, Inside. 

I have thought about this film quite a bit since seeing it earlier this year. Much of this has to do with many of the legislation around abortion bans. While I identify as gender fluid, I am still one of those lucky individuals who has a uterus and now that I am in my 30s, many people assume that I will want to experience being a mother. Anytime someone asks, or worse, assumes that I will make the choice to have children I always feel like I am reduced to a bodily function and not the full person that I am. I have never felt the urge to bring a life into the shitshow that is the state of the world, and I find it less and less likely that I ever will. But I respect the hell out of people that make the decision and am genuinely interested in the protective urges of a mother. Which is essentially all Inside is about. Two women who believe in their core that they are mothers, and who fight like hell for that right. 

Sarah is an expectant mother who recently survived a car crash that claimed the life of her husband. Luckily her baby was spared and as the winter holiday season draws near, Sarah prepares to become a single mother. The evening before she plans on being induced a mysterious woman arrives at Sarah’s home who seems to know a lot about Sarah and her recent trauma. After calling the cops the woman vanishes, and while Sarah is shaken by this event and the revelation that the woman is stalking her, she tries to go to bed. In the middle of the night Sarah wakes to find that the woman has found a way into her house and is trying to cut open her belly with a pair of scissors. What unfolds is a cat and mouse game all taking place within Sarah’s home. “La femme” makes it clear that she is there for Sarah’s baby and Sarah makes it clear that she is willing to fight to the death to protect her child. 

Without too many details, both women become killers by the end of the film. However, La Femme is truly the one to focus on here given her intent to steal the child. She is portrayed as a woman with insane baby fever. She seems unhinged and simply crazy from the moment we meet her, especially given the fact that she is stalking and attempting to harm a pregnant woman. The fact that Sarah is pregnant adds plenty of stakes to a somewhat straightforward home invasion film. As a viewer watching this unfold a variety of preconceived notions about La Femme come up; what is so wrong with her that she cannot find or conceive a child under more legitimate circumstances? Also the amount of truly insane and gruesome violence that is enacted throughout the film makes it that much harder to sympathize with or empathize with the intruder. By typical horror standards Sarah is meant to be the final girl (or final mother in this case) who slays the murderer and survives dispite all of the odds. Of course the film is hoping those are the things that are on the viewers mind, especially as the film reveals what it is doing. 

So the larger question comes to, why does La Femme kill? It is revealed that she kills because she was the other driver in the accident that Sarah was involved in months prior. While Sarah lost her husband, La Femme lost her child and she believes that she is owed Sarah’s baby as a replacement for what was taken from her. In the end she was someone who was also on the cusp of womanhood and had that ripped away from her. Now it is hard to say who La Femme was before the accident took place and if she was someone capable of inflicting the carnage we see in the film if she had not faced incredible trauma. However my mind always wants to compare her with Ruth in Prevenge who’s baby is “telling her” to kill the people responsible for the father's death. In Prevenge it seems that the baby was something that Ruth used to fuel the killer desire that was with her all along and while we cannot be sure if that is the same for La Femme that is often what I think about. It is hard to imagine the murderous woman we see before us as someone who was normal, loving, and could be a good mother. But then again trauma can truly change a person to the point where they are unrecognizable from their former self. I wish I had the answers but I also like how much of this is up to the viewer to reflect on. 

So with her motive being the baby, it is worth reflecting on the lengths a mother will go to in order to defend her child. While these women are on opposing sides of each other, it is clear they both feel some ownership for the child growing inside of Sarah and that they both want the opportunity to raise her. So we are tested with the amount of carnage we see. Much of the weapons utilized by the women are household appliances which is an interesting use of traditional household, motherly homemaker trope in a horror film. Anything from scissors, sewing needles, cigarettes, and aerosol cans are used to fight each other; and the slew of people that end up at Sarah’s home in their attempts to save her. 

The body count grows as does the damage the women manage to inflict on each other until things finally reach their conclusion; the birth of the sought after baby. The ending has some hefty biblical implications if we think of ”The Judgment of Solomon;” both women believe they are the mother and the one that ultimately gives up in order to save the child is in fact the true mother of the child. When Sarah’s water breaks while she is close to death her only option is to trust La Femme and let her help deliver and take care of the child after she passes. Making her the true mother that wishes for her child’s safety above her own health and well being.

When we think of home invasion films we often think of films where the perpetrators are after money or valuables (Panic Room, You’re Next) or films where they are simply in it for the thrill of killing (Hush, The Strangers). So the idea of someone coming in specifically to steal someone’s child makes it all the more scary for the viewer. I can only imagine what this film might feel like for mothers to watch. La Femme is a fascinating character with so much complexity. Especially when we consider she never really gets a name. Her entire character is shrouded in mystery, besides the fact that we learn she was in the car accident we know little about her life, what she is like, or what kind of mother she will be. But I guess we never really know what kind of parents we will be or how the trauma of childbirth can affect either party. Children are ripped from a comfortable home in their mothers womb into the cold, scary, terrifying unknown that is our world. How will these two creatures interact with each other and how will this affect their relationship? There is so much Inside gives us to ponder and La Femme’s dark monstrous prescence leaves much to the unknown.