Chloe (Elsa Kikoïne, daughter of erotic filmmaker/editor Gerard Kikoïne) is a university student working on the archaeological excavation of the recently uncovered Broceliande necropolis site which is said to be the burial place of Merlin and a site of druid worship. On her first night on campus, she sees an old man holding a bizarre stone murdered by a man-sized creature with a bird's head and claws. No one believes her but Chloe then learns that the stone is an artifact used in conjunction with grisly sacrifices to summon demons. The next day on site, she and love interest history student Erwann (Mathieu Simonet, MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT) discover a crevice and a set of ceremonial billhooks which are subsequently stolen from the site. Chloe first suspects Gilles (Céderic Chevalme) who studied in Ireland and has been skulking around the periphery. When she discovers that the murdered man was a famous Irish archaeologist who discovered the stone, she then suspects history professor Brennos (Vernon Dobtcheff) who denies knowing the dead man (although Erwann has confirmed that Brennos was part of the expedition when the stone was discovered) until he is murdered in front of her eyes by the bird-man. Gilles confronts Chloe and tells her she worked with the dead man and knew that he had come to France and brought the stone with him because he suspected something terrible was going to happen. The two determine that someone wants to recreate an ancient Druidic feast to summon an ancient demon. Meanwhile, Brennos daughter Iris (Cylia Malki) and archaeology professor Vernet (André Wilms) discover a hidden map to the necropolis in Brennos' journal. When archaeology student Thomas (Alexis Loret) tells them that girlfriend Lea (Alice Taglioni) has disappeared, the whole group converge upon the necropolis site only to find the feast already underway with Chloe the planned final sacrifice.

In one of the behind the scenes documentaries, there is a very telling comment about the intentions of this project when actor Simonet says that what he liked about the film was that "it was filled with elements usually found in American genre movies -- fight scenes, visual effects, but without prejudice to the plot" (well, at least the first half of the comment is telling). Co-scripted by France’s late premiere make-up effects artist Benoît Lestang and directed by documentary filmmaker Doug Headline, BROCELIANDE is awkwardly structured with the first half unfolding as a stylish somewhat complex thriller in the archways and halls of the university and burnished wood of university libraries and studies (with brief trips to the forest archaeological site) while the second half of the film is a horror movie consisting of stalk-and-chase sequences through the well-lit catacombs of the necropolis culminating in the slow-motion MATRIX/TOMB RAIDER fight scene between girls in torn clothing and a part animatronic/part CGI monster with ALIEN mouth and PREDATOR body. The injection of humor into the second half also falls flat (when Vernet asks how Iris and Chloe can possibly believe “this monster bullshit” he is met with sheepish “might as well” glances from the two) as do the cliché one-liners (“Hey, dirty bastard,” Chloe calls out to the monster). Despite Lestang’s presence behind the camera (as effects artist, co-writer, and second unit director) there is little onscreen gore (the offscreen murders are accompanied by cliché metallic “swooshing” sounds) and what there is of it is either ruinously CGI-enhanced or obscured – like a severed head held in the background out of focus as the camera focuses instead on the creature’s foreground animatronic mouth). As such, BROCELIANDE has an interesting yet derivative premise, an attractive, game cast, and top-tier technical attributes but both script and tone are wildly uneven.