New French Extremity - New Wave of French Horror

New Wave of French Horror

Some films considered as part of the New French Extremity rework elements of the horror genre. Other contemporary French horror films with a similar sensibility include Sheitan, Ils, Haute Tension, Frontier(s) and À l'interieur. The Belgian film Calvaire has also been associated with this trend.

Pascal Laugier, director of the controversial horror film Martyrs, disagrees with the idea of there being a horror revival in France:

The fact is that we are much more successful in foreign countries and in our homeland it's always the same stuff where you're never a prophet..What I mean is that even the horror fans, the French ones, they are very condescending about French horror films. It's still a hell to find the money, a hell to convince people that we are legitimate to make this kind of movie in France. So I know from an American point of view and probably an English one too, there is a kind of new wave of modern horror film, but it's not true. It's still hell. My country produces almost 200 films a year and there are like 2 or 3 horror films. It's not even an industry, French horror cinema is very low budget, it's kinda prototype. I think that a genre really exists when it's industrially produced like the Italians did 600 spaghetti westerns. So we can't really say that there is a wave of horror in French Cinema, I don't believe it.

Laugier does, however, acknowledge the existence of a broader wave of new European horror. He notes Spain, France, England and Sweden as contributors.

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