While the horror genre is often associated with American cinema, the French also know how to make excellent horror films. The proof is in these 15 French horror films. We are only talking about French-language films here; productions like The Substance, The Hills Have Eyes, Revenge, which are films directed by French people and/or in French co-production, but in English, are not included in this list.
15) Frontière(s)
Xavier Gens is a great representative of French horror cinema. Frontière(s) is a small classic of the genre. A B-movie that certainly accumulates clichés, but which takes viewers into a violent, gory and particularly unbearable dimension that is quite rare in the horror landscape.
14) The Deep House
Released in 2021, The Deep House is clearly not without its problems. The story is sometimes too predictable and Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury don't really know how to end their story. The film sometimes goes off in all directions. But it's clear that the duo's brilliant basic concept is true: shooting a horror film underwater. Staged in found footage, The Deep House is an extremely anxiety-inducing and immersive proposition. The sets are sumptuous and The Deep House stands out as a truly unique film in the French audiovisual landscape.
13) Vincent Must Die
More genre film than true horror film, Vincent Must Die rests all its appeal on an exceptional concept. For no reason, people start to resent Vincent (the incredible Karim Leklou), to the point of wanting to assassinate him. Vincent Must Die is a clever, devilishly effective, extremely well-paced genre film that plays on paranoia and fear of the other.
12) Teddy
After Willy I, the Boukherma brothers really became known to the general public thanks to Teddy. Led by the excellent Anthony Bajon, Teddy is the first real French werewolf film. Teddy is an unusual, one-of-a-kind proposition that plays with the codes of horror films, B movies, comedy, and monster movies. It's brilliant from A to Z. Since then, the Boukherma brothers have directed Year of the Shark, the very first French shark film.
11) Titanium
Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Titane has nevertheless divided the press and audiences. A disturbing and disturbed film, Titane is undoubtedly a hard-hitting film. While not without flaws, Julia Ducournau's film stands as a worthy heir to the cinema of Pascal Laugier and Gaspar Noé, and offers an impressive vision of genre cinema.
10) La Horde
A French zombie film (for that alone, we're signing up), La Horde suffers from a plot that's too banal to really stand out from its drawer of pure genre entertainment. The action sequences remain effective, violent, and bloody. More action film than horror film, The Horde nevertheless allows us to imagine how guys from the projects would cope with a horde of zombies. As for the social discourse, it is fascinating: how can we portray the suburbs as the last bastion of freedom against the rest of the world?
9) Ghostland
Pascal Laugier is a bit of a boss of horror cinema in France. In 2018, he returned to the screens with Ghostland: a captivating horror trailer, somewhere between dream and reality. Despite a conclusion that drags on a bit too much, the director of Martyrs has some brilliant directorial ideas to tell the story of maternal weaning, the guilt of belonging, and the mind's ability to escape. Sometimes poetic, sometimes predictable, often surprising, Ghostland is definitely worth the detour.
8) The Night Eats the World
Besides The Horde, The Night Eats the World is also a French zombie film. But unlike the urban thriller by Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher, The Night Eats the World takes viewers against the grain. A minimalist proposition, it is an auteur film with a zombie apocalypse setting. Zombies are just a pretext to talk about social isolation, consumer society, ultra-urbanization, etc...
7) The Swarm
Released in 2020, The Swarm is one of those films that has given genre cinema new weight in France. A very successful genre film, The Swarm mixes styles: social drama, ecological critique, impactful horror, body horror, criticism of the modern consumer system, all coated with a delicious touch of fantasy.
6) Irreversible
Is Irreversible a horror film in its own right? It's hard to say. But Gaspar Noé's film is undeniably shocking and knocks you out. Gaspar Noé seeks (and succeeds) to shock, to create a sense of unease that has never been seen since. A terrifying, hard-hitting, violent, shocking film, which reaches its quintessence of unease in a rape sequence lasting about twenty minutes... You can't get any darker than this film...
5) Brotherhood of the Wolf
After Pascal Laugier, Gaspar Noé, Xavier Gens, we had to talk about Christophe Gans. Released in 2001, Brotherhood of the Wolf is a pioneer of genre cinema in France. A big-budget film, Brotherhood of the Wolf manages to deliver a horror (and adventure) spectacle for the general public, proving that genre cinema still has a bright future ahead of it.
4) Sheitan
When the Kourtrajmé collective launches into horror cinema, the result is Sheitan. A huge classic of the genre led by Vincent Cassel and Ladj Ly, Sheitan is a film for enthusiasts. A sometimes still slightly amateurish proposition, but full of life and soul. A unique proposition of its kind, which allowed the talent of the Kourtrajmé collective to be revealed to the French public.
3) Grave
In 2016, Julia Ducournau really kicked the anthill. With Grave, she directed the best genre film in years. Grave is a disturbing and enjoyable pop work, which constantly oscillates between anxiety and fascination, between fear and desire. Grave is a brilliant allegory of puberty, adolescence, and the transition to adulthood. And aesthetically, it's a visual slap!
2) Vermin
A huge slap in the face for Vermins. It's well written, well acted, well directed. More than a horror film, Vermins borrows as much from Alien as from Attack the Block, passing through Les Misérables by Ladj Ly or even the cinema of Romain Gravas. It's modern, refreshing, lively, funny, scary, political, in short, it rocks! And the film was so successful that it caught the eye of the great Sam Raimi. The latter met with the director of Vermins, Sebastien Vanicek, to entrust him with the direction of the next Evil Dead. Classy!
1) Martyrs
This is perhaps THE French horror film. Pascal Laugier breaks the codes of the genre here. He creates a truly traumatic film that uses a fantastical, mystical, and religious dimension in real and violent post-traumatic phenomena. It is often considered the most radical film of the new wave of French horror cinema. Martyrs begins as a tale of revenge before descending into a world of unbearable moral and psychological suffering. A disturbing mix of visceral violence and philosophical reflection, the pain is almost transcendent, so repulsively realistic is it portrayed.
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