Director Fabrice Du Welz has a sick sense of humor, and that’s made utterly evident by his film “Calvaire,” a horror film that will be misinterpreted by the plot description as a “Hostel” or “Misery,” when really Du Welz performs none of these mere plot conventions. There’s no gore, no broken bones, and little to no torture. What Du Welz examines is the horror of the human mind. The horror of the human mind when confronted with a beautiful woman who breaks its heart. Du Welz examines a village of purely insane folks, who inflict their wrath on a hapless young man whose vanity becomes a part of his downfall. What “Calvaire” essentially is, is David Lynch meets “The Hills Have Eyes” sans the mutants or freaks.

The character Bartel is only the icing on the cake of this surreal and demented tale of this man becoming objectified and subjected to the most demeaning of tasks thanks to his inability to escape this village. Du Welz presents his film with stark shades of red, and often excellent direction that creates a sense of tension and suspense from minute one. Du Welz explores the horror in this man’s country, and shows a world where he’s almost incapable of escaping. These groups of men who live in this village seem almost as unnerving as Bartel. But when Du Welz focuses in on them in a bar, setting on probably one of the most disturbing sequences I’ve seen on film in years, we know that Lucas has stepped into something deeper than he knows.

With “Calvaire” as enjoyable as it was, I was expecting so much more. Welz’ film is not about action, or violence, or gore, but ultimately I was left with a feeling that there should have been much more to what we were shown and given. There’s build-up, there’s mounting tension, there’s suspense, and there’s even an uneasy feeling at the pit of the audiences stomach that something will happen, and yet… nothing. While Welz explores lunacy on a slightly quieter level, I was never sure why the characters who seemed utterly insane were never as psychotic as they were drawn to be. We’re never given much of a clue either as to who Gloria was, or if she even existed. Meanwhile, the character Marc is just too one-dimensional to really sympathize or connect with. He’s drawn as vain, and utterly egomaniacal, which becomes the obvious, but we’re never involved with his personality enough to connect to his ordeal and what he’s experiencing in this place. Thus “Calvaire” is less engrossing as it should be.

Du Welz’ film is an unnerving and utterly demented piece of horror filmmaking with a surreal original story. Ultimately, I wasn’t bowled over with this because the build-up didn’t lead to much, but it’s still recommended. And I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like this.