Without resorting to chainsaw-wielding maniacs or rotting zombies, French films have recently found other, more personal, ways to scare audiences. Palme d’Or 2021, body horror (which exposes transgressive disturbances of the human body) Titaniumby Julia Ducournau, featured a serial killer… pregnant with a Cadillac; in 2023, the history of ecological anticipation the animal kingdomby Thomas Cailley, spread a virus capable of transforming man into a beast and, just a year ago, Verminby Sébastien Vanicek, threw a huge amount of spiders into a city shaped like a pie chart. Inspired by Cronenberg, De Palma or Tarantino, these hybrid films have far exceeded the glass ceiling of 150,000 admissions.
While the wave of “French scares” of the 2000s – High voltage (2003), Inside (2007), Border(s) (2008) – quickly came to an end, the current emotion seems capable of lasting over time. Just take a look at the release calendar to be convinced: Wednesday, November 27, the fantastic western Animalby Emma Benestan; December 11, the horror comedy almodovaria Women on the balconyby Noémie Merlant; and on the 25th, the anticipation movie Planet Bby Aude Léa Rapin. “Today there are enough successes to compensate for the failures and move forward. Cartesian by nature, the French language no longer acts as an obstacle for the public.estimates producer Thierry Lounas (Capricci), also founder of the magazine. Sofilm.
For almost ten years, Sofilm’s genre residencies, in collaboration with the Grand-Est region (which launched the Frissons label in Grand Est), allow selected candidates to work on the visual and musical universe of their projects with scriptwriters, composers and artists. VFX supervisors (“visual effects”). The most successful applications are submitted to major financiers, namely Canal+ (which had already contributed to the emergence of the “French scare”), Arte and the distributor Goodfellas (formerly Wild Bunch International).
Double revolution
“Horror cinema can no longer be the demon that flees down the hallway… It must talk about the big issues of the world, which in itself is a genre film every three months.”points out Thierry Lounas. Former residents, Just Philippot (The clouda peasant drama extended to the dimensions of a macabre and fantastic tale; Acidfilm about climate disasters) and Stéphan Castang (the teleworking survivor Vincent must die) have that very French thing that consists of sprinkling socioeconomic reality with fantasy.
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