Livid (film)
A French supernatural horror film about vampires and a treasure hunt.
**Livid (French: *Livide*)** is a 2011 French supernatural horror film, the second feature from writer-directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo after *Inside*. The story follows Lucy Klavel, a young woman beginning her practical training as an at-home nurse under the guidance of an older colleague, Mrs. Catherine Wilson. On their rounds, they visit a remote mansion belonging to a bedridden, comatose former ballet teacher, Mrs. Deborah Jessel. Rumors circulate that Jessel hides a treasure of gold and jewels somewhere on the property.
After her first day, Lucy tells her boyfriend, William, about the treasure. On Halloween night, Lucy, William, and William’s brother Ben break into the mansion’s basement through a window. They find a locked door in a room full of stuffed animals arranged around a tea table. Lucy correctly guesses that a key worn by Jessel opens it. Inside, a white sheet covers what appears to be a stuffed mannequin of a young girl—Anna, Jessel’s mute daughter, still in a ballerina outfit. When Lucy twists a key on the pedestal, the figure begins to spin slowly to music, like a ballerina on a music box.
Hearing noises upstairs, the trio tries to flee but finds the window now barred. They become separated. Ben enters an operating room with no visible door and is killed by veiled ballerinas who appear suddenly. Lucy sees Mrs. Jessel seated at Anna’s tea party table. A flashback reveals Jessel was a harsh ballet teacher: a girl who left her class is later found dead in Anna’s room, with Anna bent over her, drinking blood. The Jessels are vampires.
William is attacked by Ben, now a vampire, and stabs him with scissors, but Mrs. Jessel kills William. Lucy finds Anna is not dead. Anna tries to drink Lucy’s blood, but Lucy pushes her away. Mrs. Wilson appears, attacks Lucy, and sedates her. While Wilson watches, Jessel implants moth pupae into the throats of Lucy and Anna—a ritual meant to exchange their souls. Jessel believes it succeeds when Anna awakens with changed eye color in a different body. Jessel orders Anna to dance, but she does not respond. Wilson tries to punish Anna, but Anna stabs her with scissors and then attacks Jessel. Both women fall. Bleeding heavily, Jessel tries to bite Anna. Lucy whips Jessel until she releases Anna, and the two girls throw Jessel off a third-floor balcony.
Anna and Lucy escape the mansion and walk alon
- directors
- Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo
- release_year
- 2011
- country
- France
- genre
- Supernatural horror
- runtime
- Not specified in article
- language
- French
Lore & Background
The film centers on Lucy Klavel, a young woman beginning practical training as an at-home nurse under the guidance of Mrs. Catherine Wilson. Their last patient is Mrs. Deborah Jessel, a former ballet teacher now bedridden and in a coma, rumored to have a treasure of gold and jewels hidden on her property. Lucy tells her boyfriend William and his brother Ben about the treasure, and they decide to hunt for it on Halloween night. They enter the mansion's basement, find a locked door, and discover the corpse of Jessel's mute daughter Anna, dressed as a ballerina on a music-box pedestal. When they trigger the mechanism, the corpse spins, and they hear noises from above. Trapped by iron bars on the window, they become separated. Ben is killed by veiled ballerinas in an operating room. Lucy witnesses a flashback revealing that the Jessels are vampires: Jessel was a strict ballet teacher, and Anna was found drinking the blood of a dead student. Will is killed by the now-vampire Ben, and Lucy is sedated by Mrs. Wilson. Jessel implants moth pupae into the throats of Lucy and Anna to exchange their souls. Anna awakens in Lucy's body, stabs Wilson, and together with Lucy (in Anna's body) throws Jessel off a balcony. The two escape, and Lucy (in Anna's body) flies into the sky while Anna (in Lucy's body) watches.
Reader's Guide
Livid represents a shift from the directors' earlier work Inside, moving from horror based on fact to horror drawn from fairy tale, described as 'the Grimm kind with all the bloody bits left in.' The film was originally planned as an English-language debut shot in the United Kingdom, but the directors moved to a lower-budget French production to retain creative control. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2011, and later at the Sitges Film Festival, where Marc Thiébault won Best Production Design. Dimension Films acquired U.S. rights but did not release the film for over a decade; Shudder finally debuted it in the United States on March 1, 2022. Critical reception was mixed: Variety found it over-the-top and nonsensical, while Screen Daily compared it favorably to Guillermo del Toro and Dario Argento. The Hollywood Reporter deemed it neither gory nor eerie enough, but Fangoria gave it three out of four, calling it imperfect but worth loving. An English-language remake was written by David Birke and planned with director Nicholas McCarthy, but was not made.
Did You Know?
- The film was originally intended to be Maury and Bustillo's English-language debut shot in the United Kingdom, but they moved to a lower-budget French production to retain creative control.
- Marc Thiébault won the award for Best Production Design at the Sitges Film Festival for his work on Livid.
- Dimension Films acquired the U.S. rights but did not release the film until Shudder debuted it on March 1, 2022.
- An English-language remake was written by David Birke and to be directed by Nicholas McCarthy, but was not made.
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