Outside Satan

Released Jan 18, 2013

1 hr. 49 min.

Crime

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

List

80%

45 Reviews

Tomatometer

51%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

A drifter commits murder to protect a young woman from her tormentors.

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Critics Consensus

Hors Satan grapples with weighty themes in uncompromising fashion, offering a viewing experience that dares to be divisive and delivers.

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Audience Member

disorientating,hypnotic,beautifully slow,mysterious and scary. Brilliant on a capful of Benylin.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It is a film of minimal technique and the landscape, at least in the first 60 or so minutes of the film, becomes a dominant character that almost dwarfs the human drama that is played out across it. It is a film of intentional moral ambiguity. It has been noted in other reviews of this film that it could be read as an exploration of the duality of Good and Evil and their mutual dependance on one another. Those reviews also correctly point out that this film alludes to common Christian motifs, albeit one maybe informed by an extremely austere Catholicism possibly held by its characters. However, all have to seem to failed to recognize the other allegories to old held beliefs about witchcraft that, in part, derived from abandoned pre-Christian religions. Those religions had a pantheon of divinities that operated with more human motivations and lusts, but, more importantly, where sometimes more intimately communicant with nature and the environments their believers lived within. So, again, with the dominant role the landscape commands throughout the film, it does make one wonder if it was a possible aim as well.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Pile of French rubbish

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A stark, meditative and ambiguous study of evil, good old Monsieur Dumont.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An enigmatic young man (Dewaele), living in the marshes on the outskirts of a small town, appears to have healing powers. He is befriended by a young goth (Lematre), whose abusive father he shoots dead. As the film progresses, some fall victim to his murderous rampage while others are healed of their ills. Last year Dumont left his comfort zone with 'Hadewijch' a Paris set tale of religious fanaticism. It was his most mainstream work yet, following what was basically a straight narrative. His latest sees him return to his usual milieu of unattractive faces set against the grim backdrop of Northern France. It's self-indulgent garbage, consisting mainly of our protagonists walking across wind-swept fields. As is the norm for modern French cinema, it's filled with violence, though not as graphic as the work of most of Dumont's contemporaries. The movie is not only grim to look at, but rough on the ears too, thanks to Dumont's insistence on naturally recorded sound. Bizarrely, 'Hors Satan' shares a silly sight gag (a character pulled back comically by a wire after being shot) with 'Django Unchained'. It seems Tarantino saw this at Cannes last year.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Beautiful and thoughtful.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

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Bruno Dumont

Director

David Dewaele

The Guy

Alexandra Lematre

The Girl

Bruno Dumont

Screenwriter

Bruno Dumont

Writer

Rachid Bouchareb

Producer

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

I find the movie mind-blowing, though it will likely alienate as many viewers as it impresses.

Aug 2, 2013

Full Review

Mark Asch

Film Comment Magazine

It's difficult to feel transported by the impossible when the film's world is already so clearly governed by the arbitrary.

Jan 18, 2013

Full Review

Kirk Honeycutt

Hollywood Reporter

Inarticulate characters, long blank stares, forced camera angles and allegorical nonsense make up this pretentious study in quasi-religious ennui.

Jan 18, 2013

Full Review

Dustin Chang

Floating World

But Dumont's film strips down its religious undertones and goes for something more interesting and ambiguous. Not that there is no beauty in showing religious faith, but it's helluva more interesting if the protagonist might as well be a devil!

Feb 24, 2021

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

The implications linger long after the film is over, and while it occasionally seems to be doing more meandering than exploring, Dumont provides us with much to contemplate, a hallmark of any great film.

Rated: 3.5/4

Aug 6, 2019

Full Review

C.J. Prince

Way Too Indie

Dumont's oblique style will frustrate many (which it certainly did when it premiered at Cannes), but if you embrace the mystery it makes for one of 2013's most fascinating films.

Jun 21, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

A drifter commits murder to protect a young woman from her tormentors.

Director: Bruno Dumont
Screenwriter: Bruno Dumont, Bruno Dumont
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: French (Canada)
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 18, 2013, Limited