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international horror

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Posted on November 12, 2020

“We lost her when we crossed the sea”: His House Review

Guest Post

Last year, I reviewed Beneath Us (2019) for Horror Homeroom–a film that positioned immigrants to the US in literal and figurative subterranean spaces beneath American society. Tellingly, that film took far longer to get a release in the land of its origin than it did in Europe. His House (2020) landed on Netflix recently, a film that pairs haunted house horror tropes with the plight of immigrants into Britain, and offers a useful comparison between horror films stemming from migration out of Africa into Europe and from South America into North America. As these examples attest, and sitting as they do alongside a spate of lyrical, challenging and important films that deal with racial disparity, from Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) to Antebellum (Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, 2020), genre filmmaking, especially horror, often has licence to address these topics in a far more nuanced and complicated manner than straight dramas, and potentially to reach far greater audiences. Read more

Posted on September 30, 2020

October: 31 days, 31 horror movies from all over the world

Guest Post

What I like about horror is the versatility of the genre: it can be appropriated and reworked in a million different ways. Every country and every culture has unique approaches and unique stories to tell through horror, and we’re missing out if we’re not opening ourselves up to them.

But opening ourselves up means authentically to predispose ourselves to accept and appreciate foreign horror movies in their particularity. Especially when it comes to countries in what’s usually called “the Third World”–countries with radically different cultures, histories, and perceptions of what qualifies as horror. And, also, countries in which filmmakers more often than not work with limited budgets and have only recently started producing horror movies.

The last decade has helped these local industries take off: video-on-demand services have made these movies easier to access internationally, and new producers (like Netflix and Shudder) have begun investing in foreign projects. As viewers, the best we can do is watch these movies–show our support so they can keep growing and enriching the film industry, horror included.

For all these reasons, for anyone’s potential October watch-a-ton (either this year or the ones to come), I’d like to suggest a theme: horror movies from all over the world. And, if you’re interested in knowing major content warnings for these movies, you can check this Letterboxd list. Read more

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