This intriguing French thriller establishes its killer botanical concept early on. It's the morning after the night before, and Jules (Constantin Vidal), Sam (Jimony Ekila) and Victor (Paul Deby) wake up following an outdoor party with more than a hangover. Tied to a woodland floor, bar manager Jules has something digging in his back, and as the panic between the three rises, Eve (Audrey Pirault) appears with some bad news and a simple question.

Having met the trio at the previous night's party, Eve wants to know what happened to her sister Iris (Sophie Maréchal), who was last seen riding a bike home, and the men don't have long to tell her. Eve has planted moso under them—a bamboo species that grows an incredible five feet in 24 hours.

Called Moso in French, the English title Bamboo Revenge is more ‘on point.' However, it soon becomes clear that deep societal issues nourish those shoots. While the bamboo is the eye-catching (and wincing) draw, its culms grow from two horror staples: male threat and female revenge.

Eve's revenge begins in a search for the truth, one that requires her to make quick assumptions about what's happened to her sister. As the narrative jumps between the present and the night before, the threat of predatory males and constant marginalisation of women broaden the concept and transform Eve's risky quest for the truth.

So, Bamboo Revenge doesn't stay rooted to its high-concept torture for long; this isn't a botanical Saw.

Director Edgar Marie utilises a non-linear structure to ensure the key beats land, keeping the central mystery alive well into the film (including a police investigation running parallel to Eve's plot). That structure evokes some poignant moments. One brilliantly placed early scene drops Eve back into her first encounter with Jules at the party. She beams as she walks from the flirting barman, but that doesn't last long. Later, Eve's discovery of what really happened hits effectively (causing a satisfying mix of gasps, exhales and scoffs at its FrightFest premiere). But those moments come with a cost.

The film's necessarily tight timeframe stretches credibility. To exact her torture, Eve has to accomplish a lot in a limited time, and the proximity of her torture patch to both the party and her workplace adds some contrived danger. But worse than that, the bamboo threat isn't given the time it needs to mask it.

Given the wider theme, Marie doesn't seem too interested in the deadly hook at the front of the film. Apart from one neat time-lapse, the bamboo does its work passively before it's left alone, and the film increasingly heads indoors. That's a shame.

Unlike the shoots on the forest floor, it's hard to take to any of the characters. But everything hinges on Pirault's frantic Eve—an increasingly multi-faceted antihero. She's intense and overprotective from the beginning, and we're left to question her convictions and the proportionality of her response throughout. Her expertise and obsession could have left her a hollow, avenging Poison Ivy. But constantly mistreated, lied to and dismissed, she manifests the film's exploration of what women have to endure from day to day.

That edge runs through the film far more than the bamboo shoots, and it takes it to some unexpectedly dark places. But while Bamboo Revenge is a solid thriller with important things to say, it should have had more faith in its palpable central concept not to detract from its main message.

Bamboo Revenge had its world premiere at FrightFest 2025 on 25 August