While accepting one of the many Oscars he received for the film Parasite at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020, South Korean director Bong Joon Ho advised that Americans would do well to “overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles” in order to discover an even broader swatch of amazing films than already available at our fingertips. Indeed, subtitles are nothing to be afraid of—but that doesn’t mean the movies they caption can’t be scary themselves. Amongst our editorial staff, in fact, there’s a consensus that foreign horror productions are actually much more terrifying than those produced stateside—bolder, bloodier, darkly funnier, and more haunting for their willingness to leave questions unanswered.
As Halloween fast approaches and you seek out some suitably spooky viewing to celebrate the season, we encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone. Below, the team lists a few of our favorite international horror movies—including one from director Bong—spanning classics from Italy, Japan, and beyond.
Suspiria (1977 & 2018)
Suspiria is a film so nice they made it twice. While remakes for great films (both in the English language and not) are often embarked upon, of course, it is rare if not unheard of that the said remake is truly great. And I’m not just talking about rebottling the magic of the original, by the way. While both films concern a sinister coven of witches embedded within a well-regarded German dance academy (Freiburg in the former, Berlin in the latter), the beauty of Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 Suspiria remake is that it’s not at all interested in biting the neon camp of the original—far from it, in fact. While Dario Argento’s 1977 film is a deliciously tight 90 minutes of slasher decadence—audio performances dubbed for maximum descent into mad hysteria—the 2018 take is imminently sensual and sprawls towards a three-hour runtime. Halogenic pinks and purples are traded for muted reds and browns, abject terror and shrieking screams largely for simmering tension. The prosthetics and practical visual effects, in particular during the demise of an unfortunate dancer by the name of Olga, must be seen to be believed.—Charlie Hobbs, editorial assistant
Everett
House (1977)
If you enjoy the original Suspiria, rejoice in the knowledge that another film very much in that spirit was released the same year. Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House is an experimental, delightful rollercoaster to Hell with the brakes cut clean out. Gorgeous, a lovely Tokyo schoolgirl, plans to visit her aunt in the country to get out of attending her father’s marriage to a new woman. In tow are her six close friends: Prof, Melody, Kung Fu, Mac, Sweet, and Fantasy—know that each is aptly named. What follows is a surreal spin into madness, wherein the friends are eaten alive by the (missing) aunt’s home one by one. Toho Studios had approached Obayashi with the request that he create something like Jaws for Japanese audiences—and this is what he came back with.—C.H.
