Contrasting American and European Horror Movies Essay -- Movie Film Es

Contrasting Ameri brush off and European repugnance MoviesA common complaint about m any(prenominal) film critics is that they break away to fall over themselves in praising anything with subtitles, regardless of quality. For most critics it seems there is a simple equation in analyzing foreign pictures subtitles=great moviemaking that is not exploitative. When the borderline hardcore French film Romance (1999) was released critics were effusive with their lauding of a film that deals (arguably) with sex in a realistic manner. Even esteem guys like Roger Ebert confessed to not really enjoying it, and yet I recommend it. simply Ebert was not aware of the fact the movie uses filmmaking techniques similar to hardcore erotica (the editors cleverly cut away from scenes before the money shot can occur) and fol beginnings the trajectory of many pornographic films in which a nubile youthful lass goes from man to man in an effort to find orgasm. The kindred pattern also applies to fo reign crime. Foreign horror is moody and atmospheric while American horror is cheap and exploitative. What many fail to name is that both foreign and American horror use many of the equal images and devices. In the distinct universe that is the horror film both the high end pictures (in this case the foreign horror movies) find themselves amongst the so-called exploitative low-end (American horror). Frequently in film analysis it is, as Joan Hawkins writes, overlooked or repressed...to the degree to which high culture trades on the same images, tropes, and themes which characterize low culture.A fine example of the separation of foreign and American horror can be found in a comparison betwixt Dario Argentos Suspiria and Sean S. Cunninghams Friday the 13th (1980)... ... equally gory and equally exploitative Suspiria is Friday the 13ths emphasis on physical violation. Suspiria also works toward creating fear through physical torment, notwithstanding it is settle in what could be best termed a dream world, whereas Friday is set in a more realistic (to American auditory modalitys at any rate), non-dreamlike setting. on that pointfore the physical violation in Friday is made more urgent, it hits immediate to home, than much of the surreal cleanup spot in Argentos piece. In watching Suspiria the audience is permitted to know that the filmmakers know that all they are doing is playing a tribal chief game, while in Friday the 13th the audience is stuck in their chairs watching killing after killing occur without benefit of a psychological explanation. There is a lack of what Williams terms aesthetic distance...viewers feel to a fault directly, too viscerally, manipulated by the text.