Show of hands – who believes Silence of the Lambs is a horror film? Okay, keep ‘em up if you think the same about Seven. Alright then, how about George Sluizer’s The Vanishing (either version)? Think that’s a horror film?
Sure, all three films are decidedly thrillers. But given the nature of their villains and the violence and intense imagery on display in each, is it too far of a stretch to consider them a part of our favorite genre as well? While that’s surely up for debate, and this article is not meant to lead us into semantics. Rather, if your hand is still up and you’re willing to broaden your own personal definition of the “H” word to include grisly thrillers, then you may want to stick around for the following film recommendation.
The title in question is, to be certain, both a standard police procedural and a thriller. However, its vicious killer, gruesome violence and intense third act also comfortably place it well within the embrace of the horror genre. A French film released in its native country in early 2008, Olivier Marchal’s MR 73 didn’t hit US shores until later that same year, when it was regrettably retitled The Last Deadly Mission and dumped into Blockbuster as one of its “Exclusive” line of DVDs. Sadly, the film never gained much traction here in the States, as it never had a standalone release after the video rental giant went bankrupt in 2010. And what a shame, as the film is one of the better genre offerings the aughts has to offer.
The film opens with a title card noting that the following tale is “Inspired by true events”, then introduces us to Louis Schneider (Daniel Auteuil), a drunken French cop boozing it up on a Marseilles public transit bus before hijacking the thing at gunpoint for the simple purpose of having it turn around and take him back home – a moody, intense sequence all set to Leonard Cohen’s “Avalanche”. Schneider is arrested by a SWAT team, then astonishingly let off the hook due to the sympathy the force has for him given both his prior record and an unnamed tragedy in his recent past.
Schneider is bounced down to desk duty, but continues to look into a series of serial killings he’d previously investigated. The murders are brutal – all female victims, sexually assaulted and butchered. Schneider acts as a silent aide to his old partner in researching the crimes, even though contravening his superiors would be the one final straw that would mean the end of his career as a lawman.
In a parallel story, young bartender Justine Maxence (Them’s Olivia Bonamy) learns that Charles Subra (High Tension’s Philippe Nahon), the vicious killer who murdered her parents over two decades ago, will be released from prison soon. Unable to cope with the stress and unwilling to forgive and forget, Justine sends both a letter and a photo of herself to the soon-to-be-freed convict – a direct challenge to the imprisoned murderer. Her reckless attitude changes soon enough when she learns that she’s pregnant.
Crooked cops, family drama, prison shenanigans and Schneider’s haunted past weave in and out of these two stories, until they eventually dovetail over halfway into the film. Justine seeks out Schneider, the cop who’d found her as a child at the scene of her parents’ murders, wanting to hear the grim details of Subra’s killings. Not long after, Schneider makes a discovery in the case of the serial killer currently haunting the streets of Marseilles. He leads an unsanctioned arrest attempt on the murderer, leading to the death of not only the killer, but his old partner as well. Schneider is imprisoned, then released months later, only to find that Subra has gone free and has been stalking and quietly terrorizing Justine. With nothing left to lose in his life, Schneider sets out on a personal mission to rid the people he cares about of their own personal demons, before reckoning with his own in one final, harrowing act.
With its emphasis on heavy drama and the procedural aspects of Schneider’s initial investigation, it might be easy to overlook the film’s latent horror. But a thoughtful watch reveals a movie brimming with dread and shocks, punctuated by jarring bursts of violence, nauseatingly realistic gore, and some truly disturbing tableaus left in the wake of both murderers’ rampages – all showcasing an unrelentingly bleak and brutal approach that one could liken to the wave of New French Extremity films that were contemporaries of MR 73. While one might expect a film that deals with such well worn tropes as an alcoholic detective, corrupt cops, and a cat-and-mouse-playing serial killer to feel oddly comforting in its triteness, MR 73’s underlying terreur (to say nothing of the skill with which the film was made) succeeds in keeping its viewers off-balance and apprehensive throughout its runtime. This is not a movie in which the plucky young FBI detective saves the day in the final act. The world isn’t righted once the serial killer is dealt with definitively by a pair of heroic cops. No, this is a movie that keeps you cold, clammy, and constantly anticipating the worst. Even its biggest triumph and the promise of better days ahead in the film’s final moments are marred by tragedy and soaked in blood.
Credit for this must go to writer/director Marchal, a former policeman and actor who’d previously tackled the crime genre as a director with Gangsters and 36 Quai des Orfèvres, The first two parts of an unofficial trilogy which MR 73 was meant to conclude. Marchal garners great performances from his cast (particularly Auteuil, Bonamy and Nahon) and keeps the film looking gorgeous and gritty (courtesy of cinematographer Denis Roudens), all while maintaining the film’s alternately melancholic and nerve-shredding tone throughout. Sadly, Marchal hasn’t returned to horror in the decade since MR 73’s release, but this fan would be very curious to see what else he might be capable of doing within the genre.
Horror. Not horror. Horror adjacent. Whatever. In any case, MR 73 is one of the best films you’ve likely never seen. Its brutal, beautiful tale of a broken human being trying to do one last good, redemptive thing in a world that continues to beat him down is engaging, exciting, horrifying, tragic, and ultimately hopeful (albeit with great reservations about the world our hero leaves behind). Though its scant availability on home video and its limited visibility on streaming platforms makes it a bit of a pain in the ass to seek out, trust this viewer when he tells you that it’s worth the extra effort. If you get around to catching it (and you should), please pop back by and let us know what you think of it. I sincerely doubt it’ll disappoint.
