As we’ve touched on before here on No But Listen, action-horror is a sub-genre inhabited by a surprisingly-low number of classics.
For whatever reason, the point where the two genres meet isn’t exactly populated with a lot of bangers, even though, on paper, they might seem like a perfect match – they both have setpieces at the centre of their storytelling, along with a small central group of oft-dwindling characters picked off by the outside threat. There are a few exceptions to this rule of mediocrity, but, for the most part, I find myself jonesing for someone to really bring the two genres together in a way that works, in a way that makes the most of both action and horror and finds overlap between them that makes sense.
Which brings me to Saloum, the 2021 Senegalese action-horror from director Jean Luc Herbulot. Following three mercenaries who find themselves stranded in the middle of the isolated region of Sane-Saloum, reliant on the hospitality of the owner of a small resort with dark ties to Chaka (Yann Gael), the leader of the mercenaries.
And I could sit here and list off the reasons why I think this is such a brilliant example of both the horror and the action genres – I could talk to you about Gael’s unbelievably charismatic lead performance, the excellent supporting cast, the way various languages are used throughout the film to signify the secrets and lies spun around these characters. But really, what blew me away about Saloum was the confidence Herbulot demonstrates in the cinematic language of horror and action, and how beautifully he marries them together.
I think he pulls this off as well as he does by finding the natural overlap between the sub-genres he’s taking on – the spaghetti western’s mythic elements match perfectly with the folk horror that fills Saloum’s setting, the lone Samurai story echoes Chaka’s experiences, the simmering slow-burn of the story suits a gritty thriller as much as a supernatural horror. Saloum is a story set on the boundary between many things – between the river and the land, the past and the future, the supernatural threat and the real one – and, in the wrong hands, it could have gone spiralling out of control into an incoherent mess. But with Herbulout behind the camera, it treads that line not just with ease, but with creativity and wit and confidence.
Saloum is a gritty, engaging, and utterly cinematic balance of action and horror, a marriage that’s worthy of both genres individually and the place where they meet alike. If you’ve seen it, I’d love to know what you made of it below – where does it rank in the action-horror stakes for you?
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via BBC)
No But Listen 