Booze Talkin #11

Last Updated on July 26, 2021

Foreign Horror is Kicking Our Asses!

I have a couple friends that won’t watch a movie if it’s subtitled. I also have a couple friends that can’t watch horror movies without throwing up on themselves. I secretly hate all these people, unless I need a ride somewhere. Horror is a universal language that gets overlooked enough as it is. Add some typed dialogue at the bottom of the screen and most modern fans of the genre will look away before giving it a chance. Lately, they’ve been missing greatness. The last couple years have brought some of the best horror films of the new millennium – and most of them aren’t from around here.

I don’t mean to take anything away from films like THE MIST, OTIS, HATCHET, GRINDHOUSE, CLOVERFIELD, or VACANCY (all films that I thoroughly enjoyed) but none of them left me catching my breath like these foreign bastards did. There seems to be no regard for the North American psyche in these films, which is probably why I love them so much. Shit like THE UNBORN, THE UNINVITED, SAW XXIV, and THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY all lead to the same place in the end – a giant puddle of mediocre piss. Even when they remake their foreign counterparts and set them in the original setting (SHUTTER, THE GRUDGE) the intimacy of the plot and unfamiliar creepiness gets lost in translation.

So what is it exactly that these filmmakers are doing different? Is it the cinematography? The acting? The direction? I believe all of those have something to do with it but, overall, it has to do with getting a break from the clichés that drive our version of the genre. Their young women don’t always seem stupider than an average puppy. Their scares don’t seems so cheap and are hardly highlighted by loud noises and random cats. Their vampires don’t look like rock stars and most importantly, any and all humour is extinct. I don’t mind a chuckle here and there while watching a horror film but hardly miss them when I’m too terrified to think about it.

Maybe it’s the booze talking but all the staples of the genre have been speaking a different language lately. Giant monsters (THE HOST), vamps (LET THE RIGHT ONE IN), zombies ([REC]), and ghosts (THE ORPHANAGE) might all sound a little strange but they’ve never been scarier.