Country of origin- France
Year of release- 2010
Director-Yann Gozlan
Stars- Zoé Félix, Eric Savin, Arié Elmaleh
The film begins with a flashback to the childhood of
main character Carole (Zoé Félix). In this scene the film establishes Carole’s
fear of dogs, as we see her nearly mauled by a rabid Belgian Shepard soon after
discovering the savaged corpse of her friend. The film then cuts to modern day
Kosovo, where Carole is an aid worker at a hospital, working alongside her are
two other Doctors Mathias (Eric Savin) and Samir (Arié Elmaleh). The three of
them have finished their service at the hospital and are going home. When the
group begin their long drive back, they are stopped at a military checkpoint
and delayed due to a risk of landmines. However Mathias thinks he knows an alternative
route and beings to take them along a dirt track for a ‘sort cut’. It isn’t long
however before the group’s car is ambushed by armed and masked men who force
the three doctors into a cage in the back of a van, before drugging them unconscious.
Carole wakes up locked in a sparse and dirty cell with Samir. It isn’t long
however before Carole realises to her horror the horrific reason the three were
kidnapped. As one by one Carole sees people dragged away screaming, only to be
stripped of their valuable organs for sale on the black market.
Considering this film only has a run time of around 80
minutes and could have easily ended up as a very standard horror affair, it is
nice to see that the writers tried to do something at least a little different,
and succeeded in some ways. Carole’s fear of dogs is the most interesting point
of the plot as throughout her time in the cell she can hear the sound of dogs
barking every time one of her kidnappers appears, thus equating them to savage
animals. The fear of dogs (or cynophobia for all you pretentious assholes like
me) element of the film also leads to one very tense scene in which Carole must
pass within inches of a pack of snarling dogs in an attempt to escape. This scene
along with much if the films climax is very atmospheric and very tense as Carole
desperately tries to escape from her captors.
The film is also technically very proficient as it manages
to create a very closed in, claustrophobic environment with its tight cinematography
and low key lighting. However despite the films many good points it does have
some issues. The key problem with Caged
is its slightly rushed, and very predictable plot that never manages to feel completely
natural or even that smooth at times. This leaves much of the film feeling
badly paced and this inevitably negatively effects just about everything else.
Much of the plot itself is very reminiscent of Hostel, as we see outsiders being kidnapped and murdered in what
can only be described as a murder compound for the purpose of making money. Despite
this films similarities to Hostel it
is very hard to compare the two as much of the horror in Caged is psychological as opposed to guts n’gore.
I think that overall however this is worth a watch
despite its plot issues, as it does at least try and do something with its
cynophobia
element and despite its short run time tries to develop characters beyond a 2D
cardboard level. It is not the best example of modern French horror, but it’s
worth a look for more dedicated genre fans, I will give this one a 6/10. 
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