Sheitan | 
 enlarge | Director: Kim Chapiron
Actors: Vincent Cassel, Olivier Bartelemy, Roxane Mesquida, Nico Le Phat Tan, Leila Bekhti
Studio: Tartan Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.55
You Save: $7.40 (49%)
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Rating:  12 reviews
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: GEPDTVD2034D
UPC: 842498020340
EAN: 0842498020340
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: December 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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Product Description
On christmas eve 3 young guys meet 2 gorgeous girls who invite them to spend the weekend in the country. They arrive & meet the maniacal housekeeper joseph. As the weekend progresses josephs behavior only gets more erratic & the friends realize their host has made a demonic pact. All hell is about to break loose. Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 12/26/2006 Run time: 94 minutes
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 French country-side religion, sex, delutions October 27, 2008
Michael Kerjman (The Earth)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a next movie of non-French French citizens, young people of Muslim background, local converts, among a range of other similar works present in English-speaking world with La Haine (Criterion Collection) and Baise-Moi surely.
Testosterone-fuelled drunk men kicked out from a night club had accepted invitation to celebrate Christmas in a company of just met chiks somewhere in a country-side where further actions occurred presented reminescently to Puppet Master Boxset/ Doll Master (Korea) themes just a mix of psycho-delusions proving one's religious cliches that neophytes are damned, out-wedlog sex is dangerous, Muslims are untrustworthy.
It is not worth A$12 ripped at the second hand DVD shop although Vincent Cassel is impressive and he is only one memorable actor and character this film memorised for if even someone admired incest, dirty sex mimicking and zoophilia with sadist horror at the top.
 Another French Masterpiece of the Macabre. September 2, 2008
paulsubpopman
Wow after 2 viewings,it's still hard to catch all the symbolism this movie brings to the table. And lets not forget the bravaura performance that Vincent Cassel brings to the table! The rest of the cast is excellant too but it is Cassel that turns it up to 11. Very scary,very funny, and above all, very very good. This makes my top 3 this year.
 BOOM! July 18, 2008
Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
Sheitan (Kim Chapiron, 2006)
Once again, we in America have managed to entirely miss a great French horror film. I ask once again why on earth we got a theatrical release of Haute Tension when this-- with a stronger cast (including Vincent Cassel, who seems to play very well on this side of the pond), a better story (with fewer plot holes), a cracking script, and a sense of outright weird that it shares with the similarly wonderful Calvaire, went straight to DVD in the States. It's a question I may never be able to answer. But I'm glad we at least got a DVD release; most Americans are still waiting to get their hands on, say, Jaime Balaguero's [REC] as I write this. In any case, Sheitan (and Calvaire, the film I will spend most of this review comparing with it) has a weirdness about it I'm not sure I've seen since Deliverance. And I highly recommend it for anyone who found Deliverance in any way enjoyable, and for much the same reasons.
The plot: three friends, Bart (Olivier Bartelemy), Thai (Nico le Phat Tan), and Ladj (Ladj Ly), are clubbing in Paris when they meet some lovely young women. Soon after, Bart gets into a fistfight and is unceremoniously thrown out. Eve (Roxane Mesquida), still looking to party, suggests they all head out to her parents' house in the country. (The parents are, of course, away.) On the way, they run into Eve's parents' caretaker, Joseph (Vincent Cassel), who seems to be not all there, but harmless. As the weekend progresses, the three friends, but especially Bart, realizes that all is not what it seems; while the other two have each glommed onto one of the girls, Bart finds himself the object of Joseph's affection. He feels less distressed about this, however, upon meeting Joseph's jaw-droppingly beautiful daughter Jeanne (Julie-Marie Parmentier), but he still mostly has eves for Eve, who leads him on while at the same time flirting with Thai.
Has the plot of a weird romantic comedy, doesn't it? Trust me, it's a horror film in the same way Audition is a horror film; it really is a weird romantic comedy, but everything eventually explodes. And while the final fifteen minutes of Sheitan doesn't have the same stomach-churning power as do the final fifteen of Miike's magnum opus, believe me, things take as many turns for the worse as they possibly can. This is Chapeion's first feature film, but his debut short also used Cassel and Bartelemy, and he knows how to use them to best effect; he certainly does here.
The more Vincent Cassel films I see, the more impressed I am with his acting. He breaks away from his usual tough-guy role here to play a happy-go-lucky, somewhat mentally vacant rube, and he does it wonderfully. In many ways, it brought to mind Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?. Cassel's resume is somewhat less wide-ranging than DiCaprio's was at the time, and so it seems even more a departure; he pulls it off with aplomb. Bartelemy doesn't have nearly as much work to do playing the clueless party animal, but he really makes his character's confusion and fumbled attempts to think quickly work. The rest of the cast are almost as good. The script is sharp and witty, never revealing too much of itself for the sake of a cheap thrill. I could go on pointing out things about this movie that make it worth watching, but by the time I was done, you'd have spent longer reading the review than you will watching the ninety-four-minute movie. As long as your idea of horror doesn't end with Hostel (or I Walked with a Zombie), Sheitan is a winner through and through. ****
 Another letdown June 8, 2008
Denisruc (Seattle, Wa)
While it's nice to see a new generation of French film makers embrace the horror genre, none of their recent attempts have been truly convincing. I had high hopes for "Sheitan". Regrettably, those hopes were dashed.
The main problem of films like "Sheitan" or "High Tension (Unrated Widescreen Edition)" is their fundamental lack of originality. They rehash themes that have already been developed exhaustively by American film makers. Sure, the French seem quite apt at pushing the limits of gore and violence (could it be because they don't have the MPAA breathing down their necks?) but ultimately I have to sum up "Sheitan" with the same words I used when I reviewed "Haute Tension": you've seen it all before but this time it's in French.
Furthermore, I have to wonder about the recurring portrayal of country people as degenerates. In that regard "Sheitan" is just like "Calvaire: The Ordeal". I first thought this was just a case of too much "Deliverance" but eventually I came to the conclusion that this might in fact be the most authentic aspect of the movie, something that is uniquely French and for once not borrowed from America. If you want to know what the Parisian elite truly thinks of the average provincial Frenchman, if you want to know in what low esteem French artists hold their fellow countrymen, then watch "Sheitan".
Sheitan is WAY better than wannabe-shock-exploitation-horror-movie Hostel! September 17, 2007
Rui Filipe (Amadora, Portugal)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Neighborhood bonding time! Party on and get yourself a sheep!
Teens in peril? Or teens in trouble? Well, not quite. Putting aside the questionable and "probing" sexual (inbreeding, homosexuality)/religious (christianity, judaism, islamism)/racial (white vs asian vs black)/musical (hip-hop, rap) issues, this movie is quite good, from a low-budget production point of view (2,7M, $3,7M). Not wanting to pass an overrated hyped opinion, I think this one is a pure fun sex comedy horror flick, with some gruesome, unsettling moments, and also vile and gory visuals not unlike those at display on such classics as Cannibal Holocaust or Last House on the Left. And yet, those kids are just having some fun along with us, the spectators. Until your hosts make you eat the shocking truth and shove it down your throat. And why is that, you ask?
Well, I liked this better than Eli Roth's Hostel, considering the fact that nowadays graphic violence is not a necessity plot wise but rather a recurring tool for commercial benefit (gorehounds beware!), but in Sheitan it is more a justified exposition of the actions and settings in which the characters evolve, from rivalries between friends to gratuitous confrontational sex based aggression. Sonic!
As always, Vincent Cassel delivers his acting madness as a hilarious french "redneck" shepherd, with perverted sexual tendencies that make the ending quite understandable, for sanity's sake!
For more Vincent Cassel madness, try Dobermann, Hate (La Haine) or even The Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pact des Loups) for one iconic rogue character.
French independent cinema is getting better by the year!
If possible, go for the double disc R2 SE. If not, this edition (R1 Tartan Video) is your best option.
P.S.: Oh, and don't miss the Miss Monica Bellucci's cameo somewhere in there too!
Have fun! It's really worth it!
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