CACHE

A family is terrorized via videotape and mail in the foreign-language film CACHE. The French film stars Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche as Georges and Anne, a married couple who begins receiving surveillance video tapes of the outside of their home. The tapes seem harmless, but after receiving several of them, the couple becomes worried. The police are of no help, since a crime hasn’t been committed, so Georges and Anne attempt to solve the mystery on their own.

Modern American horror films could take a tip or two from CACHE, a spellbinding thriller which builds suspense, tension and terror through a few unsettling images, and the disturbing intrusion into a family’s life. CACHE writer-director Michael Haneke, known for his demented and graphic tales, only caves once, graphically showing one character’s demise, and instead focuses the fear on the psychological affects of constantly being monitored. Political allegories provide CACHE with a little more substance than your average thriller, but it works just fine as a personal, suspenseful story revealing the sins of one man’s past. Daniel Auteuil is again a man in peril, but this time due to his character’s own transgressions and his performance gradually reveals a man tormented by his own demons. CACHE is a brilliant thriller, creating horror out of the unseen and unknown.

Grade: B+