REVIEW: DVD Release: Stranded

Film: Stranded
Release date: 24th January 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 114 mins
Director: Hugues Martin & Sandra Martin
Starring: Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Thierry Fremont, Said Taghmaoui, Cyril Raffaelli, Aurelien Wiik
Genre: Action/Horror/War
Studio: E1
Format: DVD
Country: France/Morocco

Originally released under the title Djinns, this French debut from directing husband and wife partnership Hugues and Sandra Martin comes to DVD. The North African desert is the home of the Djinn, a group of invisible demons intent on protecting their home from a platoon of French soldiers on a rescue mission.

Michel (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) is young, nervous and accompanying a platoon of experienced soldiers in the Algerian desert as they track down a downed plane in the French-Algerian decolonisation war of the late 1950s and early ‘60s. He struggles to adapt to the overwhelming heat and his lack of experience means he is constantly playing catch-up to the grizzled, battle weary veterans. As they slowly make their way through the desert, they eventually make contact with their enemies and take hold of a small village nestled in the sand dunes.

All is not what it seems, however, as the young recruit begins to experience terrifying visions of near-invisible, demonic figures who are capable of possessing their victims, turning them into murderous vessels with only one thing on their minds. These creatures are a known threat to the locals, with the elder of the tribe appointed protector of the village. She claims to know why Michel can see these creatures, and as the soldiers are picked off one-by-one, it seems he is the only one with the power to protect his remaining comrades and the innocent inhabitants of the town…


Like many similarly themed films, such as Daniel Myrick’s The Objective or Michael J Basset’s Deathwatch, the ‘group of soldiers stalked by unseen threat’ has been done many times before. Unfortunately, the Martin’s effort is by no means a shining example of this type of film. It starts off interestingly, with a mysterious figure staggering down a desolate road handcuffed to a silver briefcase. This perfectly introduced the element of the unknown that accompanies the eerie desert. In fact, the desert is the most interesting element of the film. It is almost treated as a character in its own right, and its otherness offers much more tension and suspense than the Djinns ever could. It is obviously a dangerous place to be, and the soldier’s ordeal is exacerbated by the treacherous terrain.

The clichéd character types of most ‘squad’ movies are all present and correct, which adds a distinct sense of unoriginality to proceedings. Michel, the new recruit, clutches his treasured 8mm camera and continually bemoans his situation, while the handsome ladies man, Saria (Aurélien Wiik), befriends him and helps him along when he struggles. Malovitch (Matthias Van Khache) is the company’s resident veteran. Battle scarred and hard as nails, he ticks every box of the strong, silent type. However, despite being tired clichés, these characters are well played, and offer a decent dynamic as a group of men unwillingly thrown together and forced to face insurmountable odds.

Again, like many films of this type, the director unwisely chooses to reveal his monsters too early on, despite the fact that they are almost invisible. During the first forty-five minutes or so, the Martin’s manage to build a credible tension that works well with the slow pace and meandering conversations of the squad. That is until they discover the crashed plane and bodies of their comrades, and are met with a sandstorm and resistance from the local militia. Taking refuge in the dunes surrounding a small village, Michel begins to experience visions of the demons. Quite simply, the CGI used to create the transparent terrors are not good enough to warrant such a blatant reveal, and leave the audience feeling nonchalant towards their presence. The sense of tension and paranoia is, however, utilised quite effectively as the Djinns begin to possess the soldiers, and an interesting dynamic of not knowing who to trust takes over as members of the team are slowly turned into murderous psychopaths, one by one.

It is at this point, however, that the directors choose to undo their good work of building this sense of unease. The potential for decent horror is squandered with uninteresting climaxes to each member’s possession, and a far-fetched Macguffin involving Michel’s role as protector of the village. The entire second half of the film leaves a sense of flatness and unoriginality that disappoints after the promising start.

Undoubtedly, the most impressive element of the film is the cinematography, with the potentially unexciting desert coming to life with beautiful, sweeping long shorts of the massive dunes, and the isolated crew mere pinpoints on the screen as they traverse the treacherous sands. The opportunity for the directors to contrast this sense of openness with the claustrophobia of the confines of the tiny village is squandered, however, resulting in a sub-par creature feature that fails to ignite much excitement.


With Stranded, Hugues and Sandra Martin have somewhat missed the opportunity to present a worthy successor to other superior examples of similarly themed films. By no means a disaster, but still remarkably unremarkable, and too familiar to leave much of an impression. RB