TOP 10: Foreign Horror

Happy Halloween! I knew with the dark holiday coming up that I wanted to do a top 10 of horror movies, but it seems like every film site everywhere does the same thing around this time of year. A person only cares to debate whether The Exorcist or Psycho is creepier so many times, so I decided to tweak the criteria a bit.

These are my 10 favorite foreign horror films. No matter what language you speak or what country you call home, these movies are guaranteed to inspire a few nightmares.

10. A Tale of Two Sisters

If you're planning on watching this one, be sure to make time to see it twice. This intriguing Korean ghost story has a shocker ending that'll have you rethinking everything you've just seen. When two sisters come home from the hospital after the death of their mother, they contend with two evils in their home - their bitter new stepmother and a vengeful spirit. It's a wonderful, somber movie about adolescence and mourning.

9. Nosferatu

This German silent film from F.W. Murnau is the original Dracula adaptation. The 1922 classic concerns a man named Thomas Hutter, who travels to Count Orlok's castle to sell him a house. But the monstrous man soon sets his sights (and his fangs) on Hutter and his loving wife. It may be mild by today's shocking standards, but an eerie, evil performance from Max Schrek as Orlok is still an unsettling and lasting image. It's a menacing tale that's still the definitive film version of Bram Stoker's classic story of death and decay.

8. Suspiria

Italian director Dario Argento was the undisputed master of horror when he made this classic in 1977. Suspiria tells the story of Susan, an American girl attending a famous school of dance in Europe. She's not there long before strange and unnatural occurances have her frightened and ill, and soon she discovers the school has long been a gathering place for a witches coven. Argento creates a surreal and chilling atmosphere and makes stomach-turning material more interesting than it has any right to be. And special kudos to Goblin's spine-tingling and relentless musical score.

7. Ringu

By now I'm sure you all know the story of Ringu. A cursed videotape seems to kill everyone who watches it after seven days. Reiko, a journalist, hears the urban myth of the tape and is drawn into the mystery of an otherworldly girl's death. Once she views the tape, she has one week to uncover the secrets surroundinng it in order to save her own life. One of the creepiest moments ever conceived and put on film is a girl's crawl from a well in the video and out of the television toward one of her victims. Thank goodness videotapes are pretty obsolete in this digital age, or I'd still be terrified every time I touched a VHS.

6. [REC]

Far and away one of the best zombie movies I've ever seen, [REC] takes the hand-held scare tactic - a tired device in horror films, if you ask me - and makes it into something new and thrilling. A Barcelona news reporter and her cameraman are on assignment filming a group of firemen, but suddenly find themselves quarantined in an apartment building where an unknown virus has turned residents into violent killers. Exceptional performances and an astonishing and unnerving ending turn this zombie flick into a must-watch horror gem.

5. The Devil's Backbone

There are some glaring similarities between Guillermo del Toro's 2001 gothic horror film and his sensational hit Pan's Labyrinth. His lead characters in both are children coping during the Spanish Civil War, with adversaries both real and supernatural. In The Devil's Backbone, Carlos is a young boy whose father has recently died in the war. He's taken in at the Santa Lucia School and soon meets the restless ghost of a murdered student. It's a compelling and convincing tale made with intelligence and ambition. A visually arresting and emotionally poignant ghost story that fits right in with del Toro's most beautiful and effective works.

4. Let the Right One In

Tomas Alfredson's brilliant vampire movie is more than a genre flick. It's a beautiful study of young friendship and the horrors of adolescence. A 12-year-old boy named Oskar is regularly bullied and friendless until Eli, also 12 and alone, moves is nextdoor. Her arrival coincides with a series of gruesome attacks, and though Oskar realizes there is something different about her, he befriends her. The loneliness they both feel is the only thing strong enough to unite them despite the vastly different worlds they inhabit. The film is a wonder to make a vampire movie and a tale of innocent childhood friendship fit together so beautifully.

3. Diabolique

As far as scares are concerned, Diabolique is relatively tame. But it's inarguable that French director Henri-Georges Clouzot was masterful with suspenseful thrillers. The film tells the story of two women - one the wife of a boarding school's brutish headmaster, the other his mistress - who bond over their apparent mutual hatred of the man and decide to do him in. The film is a masterpiece of deceit and double-crossings with a Hitchcockian flair that convinces you that you know where it's headed, only to yank the rug from under you time and time again.

2. Eyes Without a Face

Eyes Without a Face is a 1959 French film directed by Georges Franju. Its an elegant and subdued film with stunning and creepy visuals. A plastic surgeon becomes obsessed with fixing his daughter Christiane's horribly disfigured face. He and his nurse conspire to fix her by kidnapping other young women and removing their faces. It's wonderfully controlled filmmaking that places mood over scares, and the lead performance from Edith Scob - wearing a bizarrely blank mask - is jarringly serene. Plus, there's a killer bit with a dog (I'm a sucker for any scene with a German Shepherd).

1. The Orphanage

The best ghost story I've ever seen is J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage. Laura and her husband move in to the seaside orphanage in which she grew up and turn it into a facility for disabled children. But when their son goes missing, Laura discovers terrifying secrets about the house and the children who lived there. A modern horror film that understands and smartly uses suspense is rare, but this is one of those films. The Orphanage doesn't rely on cheap and frequent scares, it instead chills you from moment one with dread and anticipation of what might happen. Belen Rueda gives a knockout performance and the final act's startling revelation is more horrifying than any ending you've ever seen before.

There you have it, the best of foreign horror. Three of these titles have spawned inferior U.S. remakes, with two more on the way, but do yourself a favor and catch the originals next time you're in the mood for a good scare.

What are your favorite horror films? Do any of these foreign gems make your list?

Reeves' Remake

One of the tidbits I missed in my absense was the news that director Matt Reeves, the man behind last year's Cloverfield, is taking the reigns on an American remake of one of my favorite films of last year, Let the Right One In, from Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson.

The film has been retitled Let Me In for its American theatrical release, set for sometime in 2010, and the central characters Oskar and Eli have been changed to Owen and Abby, respectively. Apparantly Reeves is adapting straight from the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist instead of from the Swedish film, though I find that bit confusing, what with the title and name changes.

I'm seriously nervous about this development. Aside from not being a huge fan of Cloverfield, I generally frown on remaking movies that are near perfect as they are.

I'm not alone in my apprehension. The original has plenty of fans who are relatively upset. Matt Reeves has responded briefly to the criticism of the project:

"I can understand because of people's love of the [original] film that there's this cynicism that I'll come in and trash it, when in fact I have nothing but respect for the film. I'm so drawn to it for personal and not mercenary reasons...I hope people give us a chance."

This is my issue. I understand having respect for the film and as an artist having your own vision for the material, but I think by remaking it Reeves is only guaranteeing fewer people will see the stunning original, which doesn't sit well with me at all.

Plus, with the current phenomenon that is the teen obsession with vampire tales, I'm extremely nervous that the violence will be toned down to get a PG-13 rating and then the poetry will be completely lost. The beauty of the film was its marriage of the brutality of vampiric legend and the innocence of childhood friendship. Any shying away from the more horrific themes would be a major disappointment.

I'm doing my best to reserve judgment, but I have a baaad feeling about the whole idea so far. Please, Matt Reeves, prove me wrong.

My Favorite Films of 2008

This is admittedly a bit late for a top 10 post. In coming years I will do this in February, around the time of awards season when the cinematic year is coming to a close. But since this blog didn't exist this past February, May will have to do this year!

Bear in mind while reading this that I don't even come close to seeing every single movie that's released in a year. I'm very particular about the films I'll watch. I don't watch anything directed by Michael Bay, and tend to steer clear of familiar-looking romantic comedies, and never, under any circumstances, pay to watch Will Ferrell make a fool out of himself.

I do, however, take in quite a few arthouse films, foreign-language pictures, and festival flicks throughout the year. I watch every movie in the Best Picture race at the Oscars, and even went so far last year as to see every single Academy Award-nominated performance. Generally I see any film generating even the smallest bit of positive buzz. My tally at the end of each year is usually about 100 films. So here are the ten best, in my opinion, of 2008.

10. Happy-Go-Lucky.

This film was my first experience with the work of British director Mike Leigh, and I fell in love. Mike Leigh works in an unusual way. He and his actors meet, collaborate, and improvise until they hammer out their characters and story arc, and then he writes the script. This film stars wonderful newcomer Sally Hawkins as Poppy, a perpetually cheery schoolteacher whose upbeat outlook on life is constantly challanged but never changed. Among the hardships the sunny central character faces are a crabby driver's ed instructor, a back injury, a bully in the elementary class she teaches, and a judgemental older sister. In an early scene, Poppy comes out of a bookstore and discovers her bike has been stolen. Her reaction is the easiest way to explain who this woman is. She smiles bemusedly and says, "I didn't even get to say goodbye."

9. The Class.

The Class is a captivating and original French film about one school year in an urban high school. One of the best things about this movie is that there's no added drama. It simply follows a French class over the course of one year. The young actors playing the often rowdy students are incredible, hardly seeming to act at all. The setting is sometimes excrutiatingly realistic. Too often I recognized my high school peers and found myself overjoyed to have those years behind me. The movie skips the cliches of drugs and teen violence, focusing more on an array of true-to-life behavioral issues and the all-too-familiar power struggles that occur between teacher and pupil.

8. The Dark Knight.

I thought the first film in Christopher Nolan's re-imagined Batman franchise, Batman Begins, was pretty good. I enjoyed the new, darker tone and thought Christian Bale was the best actor to don the batmask yet. I was seriously disappointed by the casting of Katie Holmes and the weak, muddled fight sequences, though. Sequel talk rarely excites me, and when jaws started flapping about The Dark Knight being the best comic book movie ever made, I chalked it up to sentamentalist hype in response to star Heath Ledger's unfortunate death in January of last year. I was wrong. Brilliant performances from every cast member (especially Ledger, who earned one of only two posthumous acting Oscars ever awarded for his iconic and definitive performance as The Joker) and Nolan's astonishing elevation of typical superhero movie material made The Dark Knight unmissable. It was not just good guys vs. bad guys. It was about which side of a man wins out in a broken and brutal society. His goodness or corruption? His honor or anger? I'm still not sure that I know the answer.

7. Let the Right One In.

To put it simply, Let the Right One In is the best vampire movie ever made. It's a Swedish film that sadly wasn't widely distributed. A shame, since it's easily one of the best horror films of the last decade or so. It's about a 12-year-old boy named Oskar who is regularly bullied and friendless until Eli, also 12 and alone, moves is nextdoor. Her arrival coincides with a series of gruesome attacks, and though Oskar realizes there is something different about her, he befriends her. The loneliness they both feel is the only thing strong enough to unite them despite the vastly different worlds they inhabit. The flm is a wonder to make a vampire movie and a tale of innocent childhood friendship fit together so beautifully.

6. Frost/Nixon.

I thought this movie was going to be boring. I mean, if I cared so much about the David Frost radio interviews of Richard Nixon I could just listen to or watch the real things somewhere. But leave it to director Ron Howard to take a well-known historical event and make it cinematic and interesting. The cast deserves some heavy praise too. Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, both of whom starred in the original stage production, knock their roles out of the park, and the supporting cast is stellar as well.

5. The Wrestler.

Mickey Rourke's performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a burned out pro wrestler who decides to make a comeback both in the ring and in life, makes this movie. Randy reminds me of people I've known in real life. So much potential and yet they can't help but piss it away every chance they get. Director Darren Aronofsky's film is a study of a doomed man, and it's fascinating. Every single piece of Randy's life - his relationships with his estranged daughter and a stripping single mom (Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei, respectively), his job at a deli counter, his wrestling career - is destined to disappoint, but you just can't make yourself look away.

4. Milk.

All of the movies on this list have some amazing actors, but it's in Milk that the cast is the strongest. Led by Sean Penn, who plays gay rights activist Harvey Milk, the wonderful ensemble cast includes Josh Brolin, James Franco, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsch, Victor Garber, and Allison Pill. Each one turns in a pitch-perfect - and in Penn's case, Oscar-winning - performance. First-time screenwriter Dustin Lance Black's moving script has moments of stunning depth and easy humor and Gus Van Sant's direction seems effortless. The combination of real footage from 1970s San Francisco and acting works wonders and is certainly relevant in the current political climate. Van Sant has made a beautiful film both entertaining and educational, and one I'm sure Harvey Milk would be proud of.

3. Rachel Getting Married.

When I go to the movies, I don't want to see something I've seen a hundred times already. Rachel Getting Married, thank goodness, is a wholly unique film. I honestly can't compare it to anything else I've ever seen. The movie centers on a dysfunctional family gathered to celebrate the wedding of eldest daughter Rachel. The main source of dysfunction is her little sister, Kym, a former model and recovering drug addict on leave from rehab for her sister's big day. Rosemarie DeWitt and Anne Hathaway play Rachel and Kym, and they're perfect in the roles. Hathaway has great moments as the self-obsessed and desperate-for-love Kym. Her horribly awkward rehearsal dinner toast to Rachel and her fiance made me want to take my skin off. The film was the first from screenwriter Jenny Lumet, and while it lacks a clear beginning, middle, and end, Jonathan Demme's direction is flawlessly matched with the script, and you get the sense that the finshed film is exactly what everyone involved was going for.

2. Slumdog Milllionaire.

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18-year-old from the slums of Mumbai who has reached the final question on India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He is arrested on suspicion of cheating, and as he explains how he knew the answer to each question, he tells the story of a life of hardships and of an undying love that knows no boundaries. This movie is stunning. A rags-to-riches love story sounds like the most tired premise around, but in the hands of screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and director Danny Boyle, and set against the backdrop of the colorful Mumbai, it became something entirely new. Boyle and his expansive cast wove several short stories into a perfectly-crafted film about overcoming unthinkable tragedies in the name of true and life-long love.

1. WALL-E.

The best animated film of the year and one of the best of all time was also the best film of the year. Period. Andrew Stanton's animated masterpiece tells the story of WALL-E, the last of a line of trash-compacting robots tasked with cleaning up Earth after the human race trashes it and runs itself into space. It'a a pretty lonely existence until a newer, sleeker robot, EVE, is sent to Earth to search for signs of life. WALL-E falls nuts-over-bolts in love with her and inadvertently finds the key to man's survival on the way. What makes WALL-E such an accomplishment is that it's more than great animation. It's also a deeply-engaging love story and a first-rate science fiction film. There was not a more lovable character or hero than WALL-E in theaters in all of 2008, and there probably won't be for years to come.