The British Invasion!!... Of Horror Films

In the last few years, there has been an influx of solid horror films coming out of the United Kingdom for both the commercial and underground horror viewer.  This includes notables like Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later, but have you seen The Hole or Severance?  It appears that everywhere you look a new horror film is hitting the video stores that originally appeared in the UK.  So why are horror films being put on DVD editorial worthy?  Well it struck me that not only is there an recent barrage of horror films being imported into the country as of late, but that they are all good movies.  I’m sure that there has to be a couple of stinkers coming out of the country, but I can’t say that I honestly remember any of them making the voyage across the pond. 

I want to stress at this point that I am not a citizen of the UK, nor do I pretend to be.  Different cultures find fear in different places so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if there was a completely different sociopolitical climate with a whole different set of fears over there.  However with the few movies that I have handpicked to talk about in this article, there is a heavy American horror influence resonating throughout the entire cannon.  The difference between these influences and horror influences in America is that these British films seem to have used this influence in more of a springboard capacity.  They take the ideas, themes, and structures of North American horror films and in a unique and interesting way, they make them their own.  The most obvious and probably stellar example of this comes from the magnificent Shaun of the Dead.

The second you hear the title of the film “Shaun of the Dead” you probably immediately thought the same thing I did which is that someone was making another crappy rip off zombie movie.  Well, we all know how wrong I was there, but that’s not the point.  The movie used the zombie movie to make a comedy/horror about people in weird relationships who eventually determine what is most important to them.   The influence to Romero’s zombie slate is obvious, but it isn’t ripped apart and torn down.  The basic elements are taken with love and care and formulated into a story that pokes fun at the zombie genre, but also takes the rules very seriously.  So I guess you could conclude that the movie itself was given an open slate with a few notes written on it, and then the filmmakers added in and infused their pop cultural references and humor into the project.  Another great movie that came from the UK that follows a similar path was Neil Marshal’s Descent.

Descent is a completely different film than Shaun of the Dead, but that of course doesn’t mean that it wasn’t amazing in its own respects.  There were a number of elements taken from other horror films such as the isolated setting, complete darkness, and a carnal and evil monster.  What really set this film apart however from its predecessors are the absolute unrelenting fear, drama, and claustrophobia.  This is one of a handful of films that I am thankful that I was able to see on the big screen.  There are moments where our heroines are climbing through cracks in the earth and their image takes up only 30 percent of the frame.  The rest is blackness.  Again, just like Shaun of the Dead, Descent was a film that took elements that have been previously done, mixed them together, and made the absolute best horror film I’ve seen in a while.  Aside from 28 Days Later, which also follows a similar path, there are a number of great British films that have been imported in the last few years that kind of came in under the radar, but over the sub nets. 

The Hole (directed by Nick Hamm in 2001) is about four teens that get locked in an old abandoned bunker (accidentally?) and in time turn violent towards one another as they realize that their deaths are inevitable.  It’s a strong story told essentially in flashbacks because as the film goes on, you hear different people’s interpretations of how all of the events went down.  What interested me so much about it was that was a character piece first, before it was a horror movie.  We got to see characters go through ups and downs in extremely dire situations as well as what happens after the dust has settled.  The horror comes after when you realize what these people did when push came to shove.  If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it highly as a horror film with a brain on it (kind of like Fallen) and an ending that is a fitting conclusion to the ride.

These British horror imports as of late have all been pretty quality films whether they got a North American theatrical release or not.  Severance was a bit like Shaun of the Dead and its influence of horror and comedy (with a healthy dose of exploitation thrown in there) but there were still many great moments of scares and frights that you wouldn’t have seen coming.   What I find interesting about all of this is that despite these films borrow heavily from other genre films and make them their own, I feel that the reason they are successful (good) is because there is a lot of creativity involved in these projects.  Yes they all have had a solid foundation to start on, but after that is established, a number of extremely talented filmmakers have taken us all on a new rides that we were in such desperate need of taking.  I don’t see any ridiculous remakes of old films (some new Hammer films might be cool though) coming out of England so I guess they are counting on creative and visionary talents to make money?  I guess they aren’t following a carefully calculated soulless formula of audience manipulation?  All seems weird and different, but I like it…