Gear yourselves up for some blood, sweat, and more blood this Halloween with this selection of the best of European horror.
It is fair to say that for many people, Hollywood, or at least English-language horror, is their first point of a call come Halloween. However, if you look east towards Europe, you will discover a rich variety of alternative horror. Ranging from slashers to the supernatural, let us take you on a blood-spattered tour of Europe and hopefully you will find something to send chills down your spine come All Hallows Eve.
When many think of Italian horror, the first name that typically springs to mind is Dario Argento. The man introduced cult and art-house audiences to the horror sub-genre of Giallo – known as Italian slasher horror – and accentuated the majesty of horror – as well as the macabre – with Deep Red (1975), Inferno (1977) and Suspiria (1977).
Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava are helmed as the kings of Italian horror alongside Argento. Fulci met horror geeks’ needs with blood, guts and violence in cult films The Beyond (1981), City of the Living Dead (1980) and Zombie 2 (1979). Bava highlighted the importance for gothic gaillo with Black Sunday (1960), Kill, Baby, Kill (1966) and Blood and Black Lace (1964). Italian horror cinema is not what it used to be, but with Bava, Fulci and Argento highlighting the visual appeal of the ghoulish and gruesome, you can do no better than dip back into the past with this terrifying trio.
Heading west from Italy to Spain, the Latin nations cinema has become a sensation across the globe, breaking into the mainstream circuit as one of the world’s leading regions of horror films. Despite the release of low-budget films like Who Can Kill a Child? (1978), Return of the Evil Dead (1973) and The Blood Splattered Bride (1972), Horror didn’t take off in Spain until the turn of the century with filmmakers Alejandro Amenábar and Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (who made many of his early films in Spain) coming onto the scene with The Others (2001) and The Devil’s Backbone (2001). Guillem Morales also disturbed us with the Del Toro-produced Julia’s Eyes in 2010 after [Rec] (2007) became one of the most haunting films to be released during that decade. The Latin country is proving to be dominating the horror genre scene as of late with even Pedro Almodóvar dabbling in the sadistic with the critically-acclaimed 2010 psychological thriller The Skin I Live In.
The Czech Republic is a European country that many may not associate with horror cinema despite producing some of the best in recent years. Czech writer and filmmaker Juraz Herz directed the dark and subversive horror film The Cremator in 1969 while Jaromil Jireš studied the horror of adolescence in Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). Fast forward thirty years and filmmaker Jan Švankmajer examined the unorthodox in Lunacy (2005) and Greedy Guts (2000). Czech is proving to be one of the most experimental of horror cinema in Europe.
Germany was an early starter with the horror genre, creating a phenomenon in the early 1920s with a series of films that remain as potent today as upon their release. Filmmaker Robert Weine became one of the first to investigate the expressionist technique in 1920 with his terrifying feature, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is a rich, textured and horrifying exploration of the human psyche.
F.W. Murnau was next to explore German Expressionism with his loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1922, Nosferatu. As well as early German Expressionism, the horror genre has shifted over the years with German Underground Horror forming a strong subgenre in the 1980s. Films like Nektromantik (1987) and Violent Shit (1989) explored controversial themes such as cannibalism, rape and necrophilia emphasising the true repugnance of human nature.
Just before the take-off of the French New Wave movement, cinema was taking a darker turn with the release of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques in 1955. The film is best-known for its heart-stopping ending, sinister exploration of film noir and for being a key inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock when he made Psycho (1960).
Five years later came the release of Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face. Its release in Europe caused a large amount of controversy due to the film’s ominous and merciless subject matter but remains as one of cinema’s most acclaimed and innovative horror movies. French cinema became even more transgressive at the end of the 1990s with the unveiling of several films like Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (2008) and Gasper Noé’s Irreversible (2001) coining the New French Extremity movement.
Meanwhile, Scandinavia is a region that has produced some of the most alternative, twisted horror in recent years. Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish horror films have remained some of the most acclaimed in contemporary film having gone down a more unconventional route. Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan was one of Denmark’s first films to explore the supernatural in 1922 – examining how superstition and mental illness can be associated with witchcraft – while Ingmar Bergman explored a surrealist side to psychology with the horror-drama Hour of the Wolf in 1968. However, it was not until the 1980s and 1990s that Scandinavia took an even darker turn with Danish filmmakers Lars Von Trier and Ole Bornedal directing films like Epidemic (1987) and Nightwatch (1994). In addition to transgressive Norwegian films like Dead Snow (2009) and Troll Hunter (2010), it is Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish film Let the Right One In that transcended the horror genre and explored vampires in a whole new light.
These are not the only European regions producing chilling and subversive cinema. Polish filmmakers Roman Polanski and Andrej Żuławski were praised for directing explorative films such as Repulsion in 1965 and Possession in 1981 while Hungary produced psychological horror Werckmeister Harmonies in 2000. Also, Romanian directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud created the popular horror Them in 2006.
Arguably, Hollywood and mainstream English-language cinema have proven to be the most popular route for horror fans; there is a rich and haunting world of cinema to be found across the channel and is guaranteed to shock, thrill, and instil fear in the most hardened horror fan.
Victoria Russell