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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 79201
Released: October 18, 2005 |
| Our Price: $6.97 |
| Used Price: $3.10 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
House of Voices tells the chilling story of a woman who discovers the frightening secrets of an abandoned orphanage. Starring Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach), this film brings a terrifying new look at ghost stories, with a twist ending that is sure to shock you!
House of Voices Reviews:
Visually striking, but lame story 
2009-10-01 - House of Voices is a film that explores the supernatural, sanity, religion, and even human limitations. Quite a lot to take on, but it attempts to do just this.
Anna takes a new position as a cleaning woman at an orphanage that is losing all but one of its children. While tending to her duties, Anna begins to experience traumatic visions and dreams. She begins to snoop about to find out what secrets this old building is keeping. Oh, and she is pregnant, and seems to be ashamed of it. How queer that she would wind up at an orphanage...
Call it Gothic, religious, a ghost story ... I think any of these theories can be a valid argument for this film. However, I do not believe the film has an established plot to the point where you could rule out an interpretation. The plot "develops" itself. That is what I have been told, and what I understand the director intended. But a little coaxing would have helped greatly, so the director fell short, and sadly, so did the film. There are not too many scares. It is definitely more of a suspenseful mystery. But I was wondering more of why she was even looking, and what did she think she would find? Details that would help the audience understand all the bumps in the night are too subtle. It takes too long to develop. And when I got to the end, I could not even tell you what I had just seen. It took much thinking, and some help from the interweb, to even decipher all the clues. But sadly, this film was not complex. I might be a little dim, which could explain my problem getting the hints and the overall film, but I think a lack of coherent story also has something to do with it.
Is it a terrible film? No. Did it disappoint? Yes. Will I watch it again? Yes. This film has all the elements of things I love about films, just done in a poor manner. House of Voices is stunningly gorgeous! Visually, I cannot think of another movie that rivals it. The cinematography alone is worth at least a rental. The setting is beautiful and haunting. The actresses carry the story well, and do a superb job. It is unfortunate that this film did not come together better. (My version had the movie only, so no special features to discuss, although I would like to get my hands on those.)
whiff! 
2008-09-02 - That whiffing sound is this film going over my head and I'm not a stranger to "art" films. Two questions:
1. What voices?
2. Huh?
All this film needs is a monolith prop added to the bright white "basement" scene and maybe a few humanoid chimps dancing about so that viewers can shake their heads in confusion and riducule those who say they understand. It sure wouldn't hurt the story... what ever it was.
Beautiful cinematography but it isn't enought to salvage a story with huge gaps in cohesiveness.
Extremely pleasant surprise. 
2008-05-30 - Saint Ange (Pascal Laugier, 2004)
While we on this side of the pond are subjected to French horror ranging from the mediocre (Brotherhood of the Wolf) to the awful (Haute Tension) on the big screen, take heart: the French have developed a cottage industry turning out small, exquisitely beautiful horror films that you can find if you look around a bit. Calvaire was the first instance of the breed I saw, and I was wowed by it; now I have found Saint Ange, and I was almost as impressed with this one. (Though there's nothing in it to top that bar dance in Calvaire, which is one of the most striking scenes in a horror movie in recent years.)
The plot revolves around the orphanage of the title, which is off in the middle of nowhere, and has recently been evacuated. (Why, we're never told, though it's inferred that the death of one of the children, shown in the film's opening scene, is part of it.) Only a skeleton crew are left, cleaning the place, including the newly-arrived Anna (Virginie Doyen), longtime resident Judith (Lou Doillon), and Francard (Catriona MacColl, in one of the longest-awaited returns to horror films in history), who's been working for Saint Ange, as she tells Anna early on, for more than thirty years. Judith is severely mentally disturbed, though we only gradually find out why; it has something to do with the "scary children", as one child we see at the beginning of the film calls a pack of ghosts who seemingly haunt the place. As Anna and Judith strike up an odd, but powerful, friendship, Anna comes to realize that Judith may be at the heart of the haunting, and becomes determined to find out who the scary children are.
Negative reviews of this movie abound, and I'll tell you right off the bat that if you're looking for a run-of-the-mill horror flick, this is not where you want to go. The first hour of Saint Ange views more like a film adaptation of a Maeve Binchy novel than it does a horror film. Laugier (who also wrote the screenplay) is content to let the material set up at its own pace. There's not even much ghostly activity once things get going; Anna's examination into the roots of the scary children is more like a mystery than anything you might consider horror. (Also, take note: while a good number of people debate what actually goes on in this film, all of them seem to miss one very important clue. I can't tell you what it is without spoilers, but note the picture on the record Anna finds in the hidden box.) It's a horror film in the way that Miike's Audition (a romantic comedy with gore, really) is a horror film; everything's pointing to other genres until the flick ramps up to its climax, and then all the sudden, wham, things get weird on you. Note that with this comparison, mind you, I am not trying to imply that Saint Ange is anywhere near is outrageously gory as Audition. In fact, it's all very low-key, as befits a film where the atmosphere delivers most of the creepiness.
Ledoyen (The Beach) and Doillon (the recent remake of Sisters) do their jobs competently here, but the real treasure is MacColl, one of Lucio Fulci's favorite leading ladies, and she's only gotten better as time has gone on. Much of the movie's atmosphere depends on the ambiguous nature of Francard's character, and MacColl pulls it off wonderfully. The technical details of the film are all competent, at least, and combine to create the creepy atmosphere Laugier was going for; I'm sure it could have been done better in the hands of a more experienced director (Laugier, a close compatriot of Christophe Gans, directed a number of the DVD extras for Brotherhood of the Wolf, but this is his first feature film), but I thought it worked rather well.
Go into it with an open mind. There's quite a rewarding experience to be had here. ****
don't waste your money 
2007-01-23 - This movie was a huge disappointment. Nothing made sense. Nothing resolved. not at all scary. Don't waste your money.
French Horror Misfire
2006-06-18 - After seeing that Rogue Pictures was releasing 'House Of Voices'(originally titled 'Saint Ange'), a horror flick from France, direct-to-video I got a bit interested. And after I saw that Christophe Gans(director of the fabulous 'Brotherhood of the Wolf')was producing it, I got even more interested. The movie is French, but was shot in English, I guess for international appeal because, godforbid, an American has to read a subtitle. So I watched it and was seriously disappointed. Here's the easiest way to sum the film up: high on atmosphere, low on making any sort of sense.
Anyways, here's basically what happens: in the early sixties(I think, its never really explained when exactly the movie takes place), Anna(played by a girl who looks like a French Natalie Portman with a pinch of Geena Davis thrown in), a young pregnant girl is hired to work at an orphanage, only when she arrives all the children are sent off to go to their new adoptive families, save for one clearly insane female orphan in her twenties. Due to her complete raving lunacy, she has never been adopted. Anna has to take care of the nutjob while doing other menial chores around the big old place. The only other person there is a fat old Russian lady who is the cook. Throw in a mystery about some dead children, a dilapitated building, and some nifty camera tricks and you would think you would get a good movie...but you don't.
'House Of Voices' is a beautiful looking film high on atmosphere(and, by the way, the set decorator deserves to have a long career in film)but low on any sort of cohesive plot. Its directed by Gans protege Pascal Laugier. Its Laugier's debut effort and it shows. The film looks beautiful but makes no sense whatsoever. I like films that leave you asking questions but literally nothing makes any sense in this film at all. This movie is a contradiction: the cinematography is beautiful but the ending is ludicrous, the sets are amazing but the script is horrid, the acting is very good but nothing makes any sense...and on and on and on. How can a movie look so good but be so bad?
'House Of Voices' is most definitely not a "must see" film. Its a frustrating film that, much like Gans' 'Silent Hill', is fun to look at but suffers in the plotting and script department. Now, I saw the bad reviews too but thought it still looked like a cool film. I figured these other people had to be wrong but trust me, they're not. My advice: Skip it.
