THE ORDEAL (2004)

Cast

Plot

After a late night gig, lounge-crooner Marc Stevens sets out across the Ardennes when his van breaks down in the middle of nowhere. As luck would have it, Marc is taken under the wing of a local man who takes him to the inn he owns on the outskirts of an isolated community, offering a bed for the night and breakdown assistance for his van. But this luck is far from good as a nightmarish series of events unfold that leave Marc fighting for his sanity as well as for his life. Clearly influenced by ‘Deliverance', this Belgium hill-billy shocker even has it's own version of the squealing piggy scene and has much to recommend it, it's as dark as you can get and gloriously disturbing but it lacks the relationship histories and interactions that made ‘Deliverance' a satisfying and meaningful viewing experience. Calvaire is literally an ordeal.