Arthur, malédiction

Arthur, malédiction ( Arthur, curse) is a 2022 French meta psychological horror film directed by Barthélemy Grossmann. It is the fourth installment overall in the Arthur film series, which is based on the eponymous children's fantasy novel series by Luc Besson, and serves a spin-off in which the original trilogy is presented as a film-within-a-film. The film stars an ensemble cast, and follows a group of Arthur fans who discover the house that was used as one of the trilogy live-action sequences set, only to find themselves being hunted down one-by-one by a group of deranged role-players.

Production secretly started in 2020 in Normandy. It is the first Arthur film to be rated "prohibited to spectators under 12 years old" by the French Cinematographic Works Classification Board and the first to be filmed in French language. It is also the only film in the series not distributed by EuropaCorp following the company financial difficulty.

Arthur, malédiction was released in France on 29 June 2022 by Apollo Films and EuropaCorp Distribution. It was poorly received by critics, and grossed only €1 million against a €2 million budget, making it a box-office bomb.

Plot
Eight-year-old Alex and his friends Samantha, Jean, Mathilde, Renata, Maxime, Douglas, and Dominique gather to watch the Arthur film trilogy. Alex expresses his dream of becoming a Minimoy. Ten years later, 18-year-old Alex disguises himself as Arthur to evade the gendarmes. Meanwhile, Jean, Mathilde, Renata, Maxime, Douglas, and Dominique prepare for Alex's birthday party.

Samantha surprises Alex by arriving dressed as Princess Selenia. They celebrate with cake and presents. Later, they watch the films again and discover that their friends Momo and Pilou have found the house used as a film set. Excited, the group embarks on a journey to find the house.

During their trip, they encounter strange events. In a quiet town, the locals observe them closely. They then come across a house where an inhabitant warns them about the dangerous surroundings and shoots his gun to scare the friends away, making them run back to their car. Undeterred, they find a road leading to the house but are halted by a fallen tree. The group continue on foot while Renata marks the path with ribbons.

The friends explore the house, finding the film props and a hatch leading to the basement. Upstairs, they discover camping equipment belonging to Momo and Pilou. Maxime and Dominique join the others upstairs, while Alex and Samantha explore the basement. Meanwhile, Mathilde gets stung by bees in another room. They find a blocked door and decide to regroup with the rest. However, Jean startles them by appearing in full film character makeup.

The group sets up camp near the house, enjoying the evening. Alex and Samantha confess their feelings for each other and share a kiss. During the night, Alex has a nightmare about Momo, Pilou, and himself being attacked. He wakes up to see lights in the distance but receives no response when he calls out.

The next day, they find their food eaten, and Douglas sets off to buy supplies, only to be killed by the attackers. Maxime and Dominique discover Momo hanging upside down from a tree, and Maxime gets caught in a bear trap. Dominique frees Maxime, but Momo falls to his death. Meanwhile, the rest of the group finds a hole that resembles the gateway to the Minimoy kingdom. They lower Jean with a camera, but something pulls him down, and Alex saves him by cutting the rope.

Tensions rise, and Renata suggests they go home. However, they notice Dominique and Maxime being attacked near the car. Alex and Jean rush to help but arrive to find their bodies. They decide to warn Renata and Samantha, but Samantha gets kidnapped and dragged into the basement. Alex and Jean follow to rescue her, but Alex gets knocked out by a strange monster who fooled them by blending into the walls.

They awaken tied up and surrounded by people dressed as Matassalai, characters from the Arthur trilogy. The Matassalai plan to send Alex into the world of the Minimoys, but Jean cuts the rope and starts a fight with them. Samantha tries to get help but encounters Minions and even a person dressed up as the villain Maltazard, who stabs Renata to death. Alex and Jean manage to escape, and Samantha is saved by the paranoid inhabitant of the house who points his gun at them, telling them to never go into the house again. Alex promises, and the inhabitant leaves with his Dobermans.

The police arrive, and the attackers are revealed to be drug-addicted teenagers who do role-playing games such as Batman vs. Superman. When they find out about the Arthur films, they decide to role-play those. Mathilde is announced dead due to her bee allergy, and the bodies of their friends will be repatriated. As they leave the scene, Alex spots an individual watching them from the house.

In the aftermath, the house is surrounded by police and medical examiners, dealing with the bodies of the attackers and their friends. Alex, Samantha, and Jean leave in a police van, unaware of the person observing them from the house.

Cast

 * Mathieu Berger as Alex
 * Thalia Besson as Samantha
 * Lola Andreoni as Mathilde
 * Mikaël Halimi as Douglas
 * Yann Mendy as Jean
 * Jade Pedri as Renata
 * Vadim Agid as Maxime
 * Marceau Ebersolt as Dominique
 * Ludovic Berthillot

Production
Principal photography began in secret in the summer 2020 in Normandy, where the original films were filmed and using the same house, between the first and second lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. It lasted 33 days.

Theatrical
Arthur, malédiction was released in France on 29 June 2022 by Apollo Films and EuropaCorp Distribution.

Home media
Arthur, malédiction was released in France on DVD, and digitally on 7 December 2022 by EuropaCorp, with distribution handled by ESC Distribution. A Blu-ray edition was planned but was canceled without explanation.

Reception
In France, the film obtained an average score of 1.8 out of 5 on the Allociné site, which lists five press titles.

Few press outlets have reviewed the film, which reflects the lack of enthusiasm and interest for this installment of the series. Despite this, Le Parisien gave a positive review, stating that it "takes its time to raise the tension and does not overbid, but the result is entertaining and effective." Les Inrockuptibles gave the film a negative review, but equivocates that "even if it looks like a desperate headlong rush that will probably mark a milestone, Arthur Malédiction has at least in itself a certain audacity, and can, in spite of all forms of good taste, call itself unprecedented without a quivering chin." Écran Large and Télérama were both derisive, with Écran Large saying it's "the absolute renunciation of everything that founded [Luc Besson's] cinema, and Télérama saying "What ensues is a killing game as imaginative as a credit card receipt, suffered by young unknown actors (including Thalia Besson, the producer's daughter) who probably did not deserve this."

Controversies
Shortly after its release, several students from the Cité du Cinéma, a film school founded by Luc Besson, denounced that they were asked to work on the film for free and uncredited. A former student of the school detailed the dangers and abuses when working with Besson, whom they further accused of taking advantage of his students' inexperience.

On Twitter, Arthur Reudet, a young assistant-director and alumn of the Cité du Cinéma, remarked, without explicitly accusing Besson of plagiarism, that Arthur, malédiction had several similarities with a short film he directed in 2017, based on the same screenplay, starring Shannah Besson, one of Luc Besson's daughters.