One of France’s first horror films was Georges Méliès’ The haunted castle in 1896 and ever since, French horrors haunt us to this day. Now, with the New French Extremity movement, French horror is scarier, filled with more blood, and more horrific than ever with more recent films like 2008 psychological horror. martyrs and Julia Docournau’s 2016 Raw.
The 20th century was truly an evolving, sporadically brilliant time for French horror, from dark poetic realms to fantastical jump scares, and what better time to dive right in than the spooky Halloween season. As we continue through October leading up to the scariest night of the year, let’s take a look at a list of the best French horror movies of the 20th century to round out your Halloween horror movie list.
8/8 Baxter (1989)
Baxter is a French horror film directed by Jérôme Boivin, based on the 1977 novel Hell Hound by Ken Greenhall (under the pseudonym Jessica Hamilton). Baxter is a Bull Terrier, but this is not your average dog movie; in voiceover, far removed from the kindness of anthropomorphic pups in cartoons, the deranged Baxter tells his story of a search for a true master. Baxter is given to an elderly woman by her daughter, which seems like a very generous gift, but over time Baxter becomes obsessed with the young couple next door and the old lady begins to become afraid of the dog’s very aggressive behavior.
Baxter’s aggression turns into murder and Baxter eventually kills the lady to be adopted by the young couple. But will this new family be enough for Baxter when they have a baby, or will Baxter’s murderous tendencies turn into something worse than he expected? A totally different spin on the classic horror genre, this film uses the seemingly evil dog and a psychopathic young boy to explore Nazism, violence and power in surprising new ways.
7/8 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll Miss Osbourne (1981)
.jpg)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll Miss Osbourne (or Doctor Jekyll and les femmes) is a 1981 horror film directed by Walerian Borowczyk. The film is a surrealist variation on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hydeupdating it for the modern age and with a dark atmosphere of madness and eroticism.
The film is set during Dr. Henry Jekyll and Miss Fanny Osborne. Surrounded by a number of respected guests, Dr Jekyll informs a suspicious attorney to amend his will, leaving everything to a Mr. Hyde. As the party continues, a dancer is brutally attacked and murdered, and as more people go missing, it becomes apparent that someone in their party is a sex maniac with a penchant for murder. In an interesting and chaotic take on dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydethis horror movie is really claustrophobically disturbing and a great watch just in time for Halloween.
6/8 Baby Blood (1990)
.jpg)
Before there was The baby, to prevent, or Inside, baby blood mined true horror of pregnancy. The film follows Yanka, a pregnant circus performer who is beaten and abused by her husband. The circus receives a leopard trapped in Africa, but everyone is unaware of the evil parasite that lives in it and wants to crawl out and settle inside Yanka’s body and take over her fetus.
The parasite begins to demand human blood from Yanka, and although she is initially reluctant, she decides to obey his demands and begins to commit murders to collect blood and satisfy her new evil fetus, in what is an intense and intimate relationship. becomes that Yanka has been missing her whole life. This sad horror movie is definitely every pregnant person’s worst nightmare.
5/8 Fascination (1979)
-2.jpg)
Erotic horror film from 1979 FascinationDirected by the legendary erotic horror master Jean Rollin and starring Franca Maï and Brigitte Lahaie, it follows the strange story of Marc, a thief on the run on his way to London in an attempt to take refuge in a castle. in the mountains. Owned by two women in a relationship, Eva and Elizabeth, Marc is brought in but doesn’t realize the consequences.
Eva and Elizabeth are jealous of each other and do their best to get Marc’s attention, and while he may find them tempting, he has no idea that he’s just walked into a place owned by a blood-drinking vampire-like cult. Gripping for its time, Fascination is a simple, beautiful watch and an underrated masterpiece of the vampire.
4/8 The Doctor’s Terrible Experiment (1959)
.jpg)
The Doctor’s Terrible Experiment (or The Testament of Docteur Cordelier) is a 1959 black-and-white film that is known for being the only horror film directed by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Jean Renoir. Like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss OsbourneThis film is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella, set in 1950s France.
Jean-Louis Barrault plays Dr. Cordelier, what is this version of the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde character. The film follows a lawyer, Joly, who receives a will from his friend Cordelier, a successful psychologist. Joly learns that Cordelier has left everything in their will to someone named Opale, a sadistic killer. When Joly finds Opale in his lab, he makes a shocking confession that, because of his sexual desires, he’s been researching drugs to create an alternate persona. Created late in Renoir’s career, the iconic director brings his usual visual poetry and warm understanding of human vulnerability to this excellent little film.
3/8 The Tenant (1976)
-2.jpg)
The tenant is a psychological horror directed by convicted rapist Roman Polanski and based on the 1964 novel The local chimerique by Roland Topor. It is also and is the last film in Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy”, after his masterpieces Rejection and rosemary babyPolanski completed his so-called “Apartment Trilogy” with this dark, nightmarish film, a haunted cry of terror that feels like a reaction to his recently murdered wife and his sense of having no land.
Regardless of who Polanski is, The tenant is pure nightmarish perfection, echoing the pathetic Trelkovsky (played by Polanski himself), who rents an apartment in a creepy, suspiciously old building. He has to trust his instincts that something isn’t right, and when he hears from a previous tenant, a woman who tried to kill herself by jumping out the window, his gut might be right. He begins to interact with the woman in strange and mysterious ways and fears that his neighbors will try to kill him as if they faked her death. It’s a truly philosophical, haunting psychological thriller.
2/8 Eyes Without a Face (1960)
.jpg)
Written and directed by Georges Franju, Eyes without a face is a wonderful 1960 horror film that Dr. Génessier follows, a surgeon who feels guilty after causing an accident that left his daughter Christiane with a horribly disfigured face. But the doctor goes to great lengths and disturbingly to get his daughter a new one.
When he kidnaps a young woman and tries to perform a face transplant, his life as he knows it comes crashing down when he’s unsuccessful and his daughter realizes what he’s doing. In a disturbing, saddening and grotesque tale, Eyes without a face undoubtedly influenced the advancement of French horror and the respect for horror as a lofty, artistic genre.
1/8 diabolical
What is a horror movie without suspense? Happy, psychological horror from 1955, diaboloque is full of it. Based on the novel She who was no more (Celle qui n’était plus) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, the French master of suspense Henri-Georges Clouzot created a dark, eerie masterpiece with diabolical. The movie that inspired Alfred Hitchcocks psychosisthe story follows a violent school principal who becomes the target of an assassination plot.
However, the terrible headmaster does not realize that it is his wife and his mistress whom he regularly seduces who are planning his brutal death. Bound by their hatred for men and a mutual misanthropy, the women’s psyches begin to shatter as strange events begin to happen all around them. A morbid, suspenseful and incredibly gripping film that was ahead of its time, diabolical has solidified itself as one of the rare perfect horror movies.