Juan,
I’m not sure of their US BO, but 2 recent Spanish-language films to consider would be The Devil’s Backbone and The Orphanage. I’m sure I’ll think of some more later on.
Also, if I recall correctly Amenabar’s The Others was a Spanish production (though it was shot in English, and stars an actress who mainly works in Hollywood).
I can think of one Japanese film called Ju-on. Videos of it were distributed in the U.S. and I believe its popularity lead to a re-make for the U.S. audience.
Latin country x J-horror x American mainstream=Dark Water
Gah, double post.
Dark Water is more of an example of how you can make a movie completely unscary or unentertaining in every concievable way. Salles just didn’t function very well doing genre horror. He made an awkward attempt at making it a tender mother/daughter story too. Weird.
Good Horror? Cannibal Holocaust, Suspiria, The Vanishing (not really horror but still suspenseful), Funny Games and The Orphanage. Guillermo Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone was pretty spooky and was also a good period drama. I haven’t seen Cronos but that might be a sure bet too.
Mao, “Cronos” is definitly a good example. Especially, after “Pan’s Labyrinth” became a hit, “Cronos” was being rented a lot in the Video stores across America.
I am not sure if this will count, but for me, Tesis is a really amazing Horror film from Spain, though it can be categorized more as a Thriller. Also, another amazing but a bit less know foreign Horror Film is French/Romanian “Them,” which heavily inspired the new American movie “The Strangers” that is playing in the movie theaters across America right now. Also, Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” and also its sequel “28 Weeks Later” are good examples of Foreign Films that are pretty popular with American Audiences. And, the Korean Blockbuster The Host is another Foreign Horror Film that is pretty popular in the States.
There are also many Foreign Films that are not extremely popular with Mainstream Audiences in America, but that are still popular cult favorites and has a huge following. Some of these are:
- Korean Horror Film “A Tale of Two Sisters”
-Japanese The Ring series
-Takeshi Miike’s “One Missed Call”
-Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Marc Caro ’s “The City of Lost Children”
I didn’t mention Tesis because I think it’s more of a suspense film, but in Spain suspense films are part of the ‘thriller’ genre that sometimes crosses over with horror, and in Tesis in particular horror-film-watching is one of the character attributes Amenabar uses to change our expectations of what is really going on in the film… [Tesis is one of my all-time favorite films, by the way – it’s masterful at the level of Hitchcock. seriously. Track it down and see it.]
Did Alex de la Iglesia find a cult audience in the US with El Dia de la Bestia?
Also, if you want to explore the Foreign Horror Genre in-depth, check out the Turkish Horror Film “Okul” (School). It is more a Cult-Horror film than an actual Horror, since it is also a parody of various Horror Films. Though, it is largely entertaining and it might be interesting to see a Horror Film Turkey, since there are only very very few being made.
You should see REC, a Spanish film by Jaume Balaguero. The American film remake will be released soon.
Thank you people. This has been very helpful.
i recently watched a french film called “a l’interieur” that was really good though there was sooo much blood..
Juan, there’s also famous Mexican movie by Carlos Enrique Taboada called: “Hasta el viento tiene miedo” from 1968. It’s a pretty decent horror film. There was a remake last year which I haven’t seen. Carlos Enrique Taboada (a Mexican cult writer/filmmaker..wrote the Chanoc series) also did an awesome film called: “El Libro de Piedra”/The Book of Stone (from 1969, and I heard that a remake is on the works). There’s another Mexican horror film called “El Extrano Hijo del Sheriff” with Mario Almada and Erik del Castillo. Not as good as Taboada’s, but pretty good for 1980’s Mexico. Good luck with the research!
Las Horas del Dia by Jaime Rosales (Spain), the banality of horror, a must see
Funny Games (Austrian version)… the most unbearable mirror in front of an audience
Los Cronocrímenes
As good as Cronos is, I think that El espinazo del diablo (Devil`s backbone) is even a better Guillermo del Toro movie, but I honestly don´t know if the movie made any splash in USA.
Juan C.P.
Hola hola.
So I’m researching on Horror films, from other countries (especially Latin America/Spain) that did fairly good in the US box office, or at least gained some sort of pretigueous international status. Can you guys think of any?