We’re at the halfway mark on this 30 Days of Horror Challenge. Today’s topic is a juicy one! “Your Favorite Foreign Language Horror.”
I should clarify, by “Foreign Language” I specifically mean “Not English.” If you’re in Pakistan reading this it will not make sense to you that… well it won’t make sense at ALL if you don’t speak English, as that’s the language I’m writing in, but I meant to say that to call something… nevermind, you get what I’m driving at.
The genre of horror is fairly unique in that it is gloriously international. Most other genres in America, like action or mystery or romantic comedy and whatnot, are usually centered in the movie industries of the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Occasionally Australia, with a sprinkling of France and Italy for the artsy-art-house movies for snooty people who like to lord it over you that they went to college.
Horror movies come from everywhere. On any streaming service you have a massive array to choose from. Mexican horror and Korean horror and Brazilian horror and Nigerian horror and Chinese horror and Persian horror and Portuguese horror and Russian horror, Turkish horror, Italy and France and Japan have had their moments in the sun being known for their horror excellence and the past several years I’ve seen a number of Indonesian horrors bursting onto the market. Horror movies can be made with nearly any budget, they don’t require celebrity actors, and even when they’re bad they can be viewed as good.
I’m doing some mental wading through some of my favorite foreign language horror movies. Martyrs, Train to Busan, Audition, The Wailing, Midsommar, Terrified, Let The Right One In, Under the Shadow, Angst, and Goodnight Mommy are movies you really oughta read sometime, very fine efforts in the not-in-English variety. My favorite is probably the Italian “Suspiria.”
Suspiria is a movie that would be on anyone’s short-list of ANY sort of best-of horror movie (and as such will appear twice in this horror challenge list – something I’ve been trying to avoid but it’s just inevitable when we’re picking from the best-of-favorite-of lists of movies). It’s surreal and grisly and lavish and loud and colorful and eerie, Dario Argento’s magnum opus is a unique experience to watch. It assaults all your senses and plays like a gory fairy tale.
Very 70’s, very Italian. The blood is so red it’s almost a whole new color. This was intentional, as Argento used Technicolor cinematography processes to build a strong primary color profile that was jarringly unrealistic, and he relied heavily on the color red to build the image of the movie.
The critics were lukewarm to Suspiria when it came out but, as so often happens, the restrospective look at the movie years later declared it a masterpiece of cinema. Funny how that keeps happening, specifically with horror movies! I think it’s often a case of blood and scares that make critics say “Ew! Exploitation! Not a serious movie! Filmed and produced to excite uneducateds and poors! One Star!!” but then looking at it again with a more seasoned eye, and decades of films that came after, many of which were inspired by movies like Suspiria, and these movies finally get their recognition.