This deftly made French psychological thriller terrifies with its exploration of an experiment gone horribly wrong. Dr. Marc Lacroix, a psychiatrist specializing in brain functions, is obsessed with the link between mind and spirit. To find his link he studies the criminally insane. He builds a secret machine, known only to his mistress Marianne, in which he hopes to exchange minds between humans. He simultaneously wants to help the mentally ill recover, and he wants to experience their madness. He chooses the psychotic killer, Zyto, a man who stabbed at least three women, for his experiment. The initial experiment is successful and the two exchange minds. But trouble ensues when Zyto refuses to reverse the switch. There is little Marc can do when Zyto takes over Marc's life, and more ominously his wife and child whom are unknowingly in mortal danger. Marc, encased in Zyto's body, is returned to the asylum. Will Marc's wife recognize the danger? Will Zyto kill again?
Acting
Depardieu and Bourdon's mirrored mannerisms are genuinely uncanny
Direction
Dupeyron's clinical restraint makes the horror land harder
Production
That machine looks like actual 90s medical equipment from hell
Director
François Dupeyron
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gérard Depardieu's own daughter Julie plays a nurse in the asylum scenes — family reunion in the most unhinged set possible.
This adapts René Belletto's 1984 novel 'L'Enfer,' which also inspired Chabrol's 1994 film of the same name — France was apparently having a very specific psychological crisis that year.
FR
