It has been almost a decade since I last saw this film, and I completely missed the narrative tie-in/continuity with these filmmakers earlier hit, “Inside” (2007). Upon re-watch, I found this to be an deftly handled meta-narrative rebuttals towards those who failed to see the beauty in the simple-yet-powerful themes explored in the polarizing and hyper-violent companion film, “Inside,” as well as a masterfully executed subversion of an ascribed Horror sub-genre to which the biggest critics of “Inside”mindlessly labeled amid all of the controversy.

The Horror genre of films was basically on life-support in the 2000s, but was able to survive the disappointing output of Hollywood Horror flicks in that decade. It managed to survive because of the ambition & fearlessness that such directors across the world were able to carry the torch; from Aja’s “Haute Tension” to Neil Marshall’s “The Descent” to the aforementioned “Inside” & “Livid” to the many A-Horror films where the gloves came off and consideration for audience sensitivity wasn’t a restraint but rather THE TARGET that guided minds like Miike’s to create, “Audition,” or Park Chan-wook’s, “Oldboy,” & “Thirst.”

There are several phenomenal Horror films that came out in the decade of 2000-2009 that I know I haven’t listed, but my point is that the overwhelming majority of the better films in that era were NOT coming from the United States/Hollywood. As an American Horror fanatic, the early 2000’s was when I first knew I had to actively seek out the abundance of wealth that was being made on the international/foreign frontiers of Horror — and if we’re being honest, all genres in cinema...but especially Horror ;)