Last Updated on July 26, 2021
AITH reader Adam Koetters saved me the trouble of coming up with a topic this time around. He shot an email recommending that we take a look at why foreign horror so often owns while U.S. stuff manages to be largely shite these days.
A great idea IMO, and The Arrow concurred so it’s a go. After all, there is a ton of great genre stuff getting produced to check out year after year, but it seems like much of it now is that flick somebody saw at a festival that came out of Sri Lanka, or some other surprising place.
Since there are so many elements at play in an issue like this, I’m expecting ya’ll to step up and spit bullets on what you think about all this – and of course, a big thanks to Adam for the list idea.
It’s been well established that the MPAA is a pain in the ass, but worse than that is how they treat different filmmakers. Those working within the studio system get detailed notes of what exactly resulted in the rating they received. Those outside that system just get general statements. The result is that some indie horror that could easily reach a wider audience through a PG-13 rating with some moderate guidance never get the chance, while the counter is that studios will spend enormous effort making sure they skate that same line instead of putting that energy into the quality of the film. And that’s without even getting into the box office killing NC-17 which many of the more intense horror efforts end up threatened by.
In the U.S. we like fast food, fast cars and fast women. Get it to us and get it to us now. Which is great if you’re looking for a burger, but not so good for building legitimate scares. Those come from a well established tension, something that foreign films usually excel at. Quick cuts and jump scares may make a trailer good enough to pull people into the theaters, but that’s about it.
Building tension is all well and good, but once things go down it’s gotta be worth it. And man, oh man does the rest of the world drop it like a bomb. I can’t tell you how many films coming out of Hollywood have left me underwhelmed, while flicks like AUDITION, MAY and INSIDE have me squirming in my f*cking seat.
Most U.S. horror for the last decade has followed a fairly predictable formula. Plenty of remakes, and then basic plot and scare points for the “new” ideas. It basically feels like there’s nothing new under the sun. Then some twisted piece like OLD BOY or GINGER SNAPS makes itself known to us, and we’re reminded that expectations can be checked when a good horror flick gets sent our way.
There’s not another market in the world that is so driven to turn out product that skirts an edge specifically so that teens and pre-teens are allowed in by the letter of the law. It weakens the whole process in the U.S., and the level of excellence we see in a lot of import horror is the best argument for why PG-13 is bad.
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