A daring stylistic experiment on a familiar theme, Sombre tells the story of a monster abroad in France, lugging puppets and a wolf disguise, leaving a trail of brutally murdered women behind him. His existence is gray, banal, and meaningless until this horribly isolated soul meets a virgin who loves him.  Blending avant-garde techniques and imagery within a narrative film, director Grandrieux draws us into a hypnotic nightmare, where the conventions of the serial-killer genre are transcended so as to propel us into even more complex and disturbing territory.  As the angst-ridden murderer, Marc Barbé is superb, but Elina Löwensohn, familiar as a self-contained Hal Hartley heroine, steals the show entirely.