ABSTRACT
In the twenty-first century, independent and art-cinema movements—particularly non-English language transnational coproductions—have enthusiastically embraced the horror film. This amalgamation of prestige and genre cinema has not always been the case, but has gained traction in recent years. Some of the more renowned and powerful producers and directors associated with national or regional cinemas, such as Alfonso Cuarón, Gaspar Noé, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Amenábar, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Chan-Wook Park, cut their directorial teeth on B-horror television and cinema in the 1980s and 1990s. While many of these filmmakers continue to make horror films, their films play at international art-house theaters in every major city, and debut successfully at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Sundance. Even as horror films are shown in art theaters, the current prestige filmmakers of Europe have embraced the genre, as evidenced last year with Pedro Almodovar’s horror melodrama La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In [2011]). Films such as The Skin I Live In or Park’s Bakjwi (Thirst [2009])—with their sensationalist imagery and horror themes—have much in common with their twentieth-century cult forbearers, and yet they circulate quite differently. While earlier horror films were often constructed as cult films that traveled outside of the boundaries of good taste, these contemporary films are firmly entrenched within national or regional high-cinema culture.
