Global Horror Cinema Today: 28 Representative Films from 17 Countries

226 Pages·2021·6.453 MB·English

by  Jon Towlson

Global Horror
Cinema Today
Also by Jon Towlson
The Turn to Gruesomeness
in American Horror Films, 1931–1936
(McFarland, 2016)
Subversive Horror Cinema: Countercultural Messages
of Films from Frankenstein to the Present
(McFarland, 2014)
Global Horror
Cinema Today
28 Representative Films
from 17 Countries
Jon Towlson
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Towlson, Jon, 1967– author.
Title: Global horror cinema today : 28 representative films from 17 countries /
Jon Towlson.
Description: Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2021 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
♾
Identifiers: LCCN 2021027794 | ISBN 9781476671536 (paperback : acid free paper)
ISBN 9781476643526 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Horror films—History and criticism. | Motion pictures—History—
21st century. | BISAC: PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Genres / Horror
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.H6 T693 2021 | DDC 791.43/6164—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021027794
British Library cataloguing data are available
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-7153-6
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-4352-6
© 2021 Jon Towlson. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover image: Virginia (Julieta Cardinali) has to chase the white coffin
to find her daughter in Ataúd Blanco: El Juego Diabólico/White Coffin
(2016, Del Toro Films/Energía Entusiasta).
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Introduction: States of Terror 6
1. Argentina: White Coffin (2016) and Francesca (2015) 13
2. Australia: The Babadook (2014) and Hounds of Love (2016) 26
3. Austria: Goodnight Mommy (2014) and Cold Hell (2017) 43
4. Brazil: Through the Shadow (2015) and Our Evil (2017) 53
5. Britain: Prevenge (2016) and The Girl with All the Gifts
(2016) 66
6. Denmark: Shelley (2016) and What We Become (2015) 79
7. France-Belgium-Luxembourg: The Strange Color of Your
Body’s Tears (2013) and Raw (2016) 88
8. Iran: Under the Shadow (2016) and A Girl Walks Home
Alone at Night (2014) 104
9. Israel: Rabies (2010) and Big Bad Wolves (2013) 113
10. Mexico: Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) and The Untamed
(2016) 125
11. South Korea: Train to Busan (2016) and The Wailing (2016) 138
12. Spain: Painless (2012) and The Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015) 148
13. Turkey: Hüddam (2015) and Baskin (2015) 159
14. U.S. and Canada: Most Beautiful Island (2017) and
The Transfiguration (2016) 171
v
vi Table of Contents
Afterword 185
Chapter Notes 189
Bibliography 197
Index 203
Preface
From Hollywood to Europe to Asia, the horror film is thriving. With
international hits like It Follows (2014), The Babadook (2014), Grave (Raw,
2016), Busanhaeng (Train to Busan, 2016), Get Out (2016), The Hounds of
Love (2016) and The Girl with All the Gifts (2016), filmmakers in countries
as diverse as the U.S., Australia, Israel, Spain, France, Great Britain, Iran
and South Korea are using the horror genre to address the emerging fears
and anxieties of their cultures.
The present work investigates contemporary horror cinema around
the globe with an emphasis on developments in the genre since 2012. Each
chapter focuses on a different country; I look at what frightens the peo-
ple of each of these nation states and ways in which horror crosses over
to international audiences. It explores the genre’s unique capacity to break
cultural boundaries and speak to social, political and personal anxieties in
a world cinema context. Above all, it provides an overview of current devel-
opments and emerging trends in contemporary global horror cinema.
This is not intended to be a complete A to Z survey of international
horror films from 2012 onwards! Although I have tried to be as comprehen-
sive as possible in terms of the films covered (some are discussed in more
detail than others), this book is best thought of as a “snapshot”: a selec-
tion of films that, in my view, represent the current state of play of contem-
porary horror cinema around the world. Each chapter provides a detailed
analysis of two representative films from one country, with others men-
tioned in summary. It closely examines 28 international films in total, with
approximately 75 or so discussed overall. The majority of these films were
produced between 2014 and 2020. For ease of reference, the book is orga-
nized country by country; in the case of c o-productions, the language of
the film or nationality of the director/s has been taken into account. But it
should be noted that one of the aims of this book is to explore the genre’s
unique capacity to break national boundaries, even as it speaks to cultural
fears in its place of origin.
Global Horror Cinema Today has grown out of my journalism for
1
2 Preface
various U.K. magazine and journals, including Starburst, Scream and Dig-
ital Filmmaker Magazine, for which I have covered a number of horror
film festivals since 2012 and interviewed emerging international filmmak-
ers. The introduction of digital technology (which has considerably low-
ered production and distribution costs) has produced an explosion of edgy
l ow-budget horror from a new generation of directors. They include Ana
Lily Amirpour and David Robert Mitchell in the States; Aharon Keshales
and Navot Papushado in Israel, and Juan Carlos Medina in Spain. There’s
also been a boom in fanzines and blogs, and a proliferation of horror film
festivals and conventions, so alternative voices are emerging; this can be
seen in the increase in women and Black and indigenous filmmakers work-
ing in the genre: to name just a few, Jordan Peele (Get Out, 2016; Us, 2019)
in the States, Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) in Australia, Julia Ducournau
(Raw) in France and Alice Lowe (Prevenge, 2016) in Britain. All of these
filmmakers and others besides are discussed in this book.
Interconnecting trends (briefly outlined below) are discussed in detail
in each of the chapters that follow, and provide the context for analysis
throughout the book.
Trends of Production and Consumption
Not only in America but in many other countries, the horror film has
become a staple genre of national cinemas, following a low point of pro-
duction in the 1990s. The increased level of production worldwide is partly
a response to wider issues of transnationalism in cinema, itself an effect of
Jay (Maika Monroe, with unidentified actor in background) is menaced by an
unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter in David Robert Mitch-
ell’s break-out hit It Follows (2014, RADiUS-TWC/Icon Film Distribution Ltd.).
Preface 3
the globalization of media industries. The global consumption of horror
has encouraged productions that cross over boundaries of nation states,
and created interconnections between audiences via social media and
film festivals. In Europe especially, c o-production between countries has
been boosted by the involvement of industry funding bodies like Eurim-
ages; while the recent boom of international festivals with a focus on horror
cinema in Britain, the U.S., Canada, Australia and elsewhere has provided
a marketplace for international product. The rise of VOD and specialist
B lu-ray and DVD labels has opened new exhibition windows for horror
films, creating ease of access and encouraging fandom across the world.
S ocio-Political Trends
Despite its international appeal, the horror film continues to explore
specific national trauma in many countries, whether it be historical distur-
bance or p resent-day anxieties. In Spain, for example, the work of Mexican
director Guillermo del Toro (El espinazo del Diablo/The Devil’s Backbone,
2001) has inspired a new generation of filmmakers to engage with the politi-
cal history of their country, often going against official discourses of modern
democratic Spain. A film such as Insensibles (Painless, 2012) might be seen
as an allegorical retrospective of Franco’s Spain and the atrocities that took
place during the Spanish Civil War. Filmmakers in Israel and South Korea,
on the other hand, are using the horror film to address ongoing contempo-
rary traumas relating to military violence in the occupied territories (Israel)
or fears brought about by the threat of invasion by neighboring countries
and/or the potential loss of democracy (South Korea). The South Korean
films Gamgi (Flu, 2013) and Train to Busan draw heavily on American disas-
ter movie tropes for their transnational appeal, while also addressing more
provincial worries relating to the collapse of a liberal Korean society.
Recessionary Narratives
Anxieties stemming from economic inequality and precarity can also
be seen in the prevalence of urban vs. rural horror films around the globe
and in the home invasion scenario of many contemporary horror films
since the economic crash of 2008. The U.K. almost immediately saw a num-
ber of films concerned with the threat to m iddle-class society of a dispos-
sessed underclass (s o-called hoodie horror): Eden Lake (2008), Cherry Tree
Lane (2010) and Citadel (2012). The trend (or subgenres) of urbanoia and
suburbanioa horror in which fears of social exclusion or social abjection are