Its Not Torture Porn if its French

The horror industry has painted upon the latter half of this decade a unique and identifiable oeuvre. Its medium of choice is the blood of the innocent and our withering sensibilities, its canvas the silver screen of a foreign nation. I am, of course, speaking of the “New Wave of French Horror.” Seemingly a subset of New French Extremism, a term coined by Artforum critic James Quandt to describe the onslaught of French cinema during the 21st century that seemingly transgresses the boundaries of human decency, this pseudo-genre has garnered the reputation as the silver lining on an otherwise decaying genre. Although relatively small in number (less than ten by my count), the films that fall under its ex nihilo definition garner mostly positive reviews across the board, and as such have given the majority of horror fans a fleeting moment of respite from the interminable number of remakes, re-imaginings, and hackneyed zombie films that have taken over like the plague.

But why is that? Have the French tapped into some heretofore unknown Holy Grail of horror production, or are American horror films just so terrible that if it must be foreign, it must be good? Maybe it’s just dumb luck; yet given that the relatively few horror films that have come out of France have all been met with mostly positive reviews, the urge to ascribe a level of superiority to these films is incredible. American horror cinema has become stale, so we’re consistently seeking other methods through which we can obtain our fix of respectable horror. Every so often we’re treated to a horror film that defies convention and offers us a bit of hope, but in the end it’s simply mirroring our obsession with the minor level of success France has had. We in turn lavish heaping piles of praise upon the indie gems that make the latest remake seem like a waste of celluloid, and as such effectively consider “indie horror” to be far and away better than mainstream horror.

This supposed New Wave of French Horror is often compared with the much maligned pseudo-genre “torture porn,” and though not without merit, the comparisons are indeed tenuous. Many of these films, namely Inside, Frontier(s), and Martyrs give off the impression of merely being vehicles for accentuated violence, torture, and gore, with any semblance of enjoyable plot buried beneath layers and layers of karo syrup. Unfortunately, the burden of subjectivity rears its head, and to assign a level of significance, either in terms of plot or metaphor, is a foolish endeavor. My thoughts on the subject can be found here, yet I think to call these films torture porn and thus by extension attaching what I feel is an undeserved stigma does a disservice to the spirit of French horror. Though their films are few and far between, they’re infused with not only a love for the blood and viscera they’re throwing at us, but the standard conventions of cinema - plot, story, structure, and above all, emotion - that most American horror films lack.

Though most of the films discussed here and in other articles focus on the “extreme,” the relatively minor output of French horror is not completely drowned in a deluge of blood. The 2006 nail biter Ils is a brilliant work of minimalist art and a stunning work of survival horror. Often compared with the U.S.-produced The Strangers, Ils manages to forgo horror parlor tricks in favor of seventy-four minutes of brilliantly executed tension. The best part? Hardly any blood. Joining the fray is Les Revenants, a 2004 zombie film that dispenses of standard zombie tropes, dealing with one town’s attempt to cope with an influx of newly deceased who simply want to reintegrate themselves into society.

To consider these films part of the New Wave of French Horror is a stretch; neither feature the requisite transgressive features that typify the other films. This is a problem inherent with genre assignment, especially when that genre - or style - is a journalistic fabrication. Like torture porn, no clear definition is given and we’re left to decide what fits and what doesn’t. Critics such as Quandt and David Edelstein, who coined the phrase “torture porn”, fueled the flames of controversy by giving an otherwise innocuous (though no less good) film a certain type of validity that might not otherwise be present. In the end, we’re left with circuitous debates and an unfortunate level of expectation to go above and beyond the narrowly defined pigeonhole in which French horror seems to have stumbled.

Editors Note: This is a guest editorial by a new writer. Please take a minute to provide us and this writer with feedbackon his first editorial for HorrorMovies.ca

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