I raised an eyebrow at this and had a sinking feeling he was about to continue....
There’s hardly been any doubt, but now it’s really official: France has become the most consistent output of great-looking, extreme, kicks-Hollywood’s-ass horror.
Over produced brutality, while satisfying the gore-hound and trope junkie in me, is at best a interesting cultural phenomonion and hardly puts France on the map. Are films like In My Skin and Irreversible more brutal and thought provoking (not to mention written, acted, shot and lit) better than hollywood's latest horror offerings? Certainly.
Two years ago, we were blessed with the Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo masterwork Inside, and 2008 brought Pascal Laugier’s tough-to-watch exercise in intelligent bleakness Martyrs. This new wave was kickstarted back in 2003 by Alexandre Aja’s slasher-flick-on-overload High Tension, and those sick French bastards have yet to fall back.
However the more-holes-than-courtney-love-could-fill-in-an-evening plot of High Tension and predicable generic acting hardly felt like 'overload' to me. The word "Load" did come to mind during the curious reggae lesbo-masturbation scene but I hardly felt thrilled. And yes- I saw it in a theature in the original language. I also saw it dubbed on a nice big plasma tv. It sucked blue-white-and-red in any language.
And inside... someome gave a pervert a blood budget. Which in my book is fine. To be honest I loved the August Underground series even if they were.. well just porn with puke. But just because its French doesn't mean we should ascribe any more depth to artistic torture-porn than we would Turistas.
None the less on the zombie ticket... The Horde does look pretty fucking cool.
I intend to drink a few Wild Zeros and veg out to it whenever I can afford vodka again.
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