31 More Countries of Horror

Three years ago, we went on a global jaunt around the world of horror, covering entries from thirty-one different countries, mostly those not known for their genre output. The jet-lag from that has just about worn off, and so here we go again, with thirty-one more, and entirely different countries. This was definitely a bit more of a challenge than the previous effort. We’d crossed off much of Europe the first time, and so were forced to venture further afield. While Tubi proved to be a good source, that represents only about one-third of the films reviewed here, and we had to venture onto the “usual sources” to find the others. The “Worldwide Horror” project on Cinemageddon was a goldmine, so many thanks to bodybobo2 for that.

The rules have remained more or less the same as last time. One film per country, and the aim is still to cover the current situation – we moved the cut-off date up from 2010 to 2014, so all the films are from the past decade. I’ve done what I could to try and find movies which have a genuine bit of local flavour, in some way or other. That hasn’t always been possible, but I did discard a few reviews from the feature, as I found others which fitted it better. Once normal service is resumed in November you might notice some of those showing up on our regular timeline. I couldn’t be bothered writing a thousand words about another goddamn found footage film, regardless of it coming from Liechtenstein or wherever.

In a change from last time, I’ve aimed for a thousand words for each review, double the previous length. Admittedly, in some cases, I’ve spent a number of paragraphs generally discussing the country in question. Typically, this will involve its cinematic history, particularly in relation to the horror genre. But I have no qualms about randomly diverting into other questions, such as the degree of accuracy with which I could locate the country on a map. While I think I would do reasonably well at that, geography has got harder over time. When I was born, there were only 120 members of the United Nations. By the time I was aged 36, seventy-one additional ones had joined.

On that basis, it feels like I could perhaps squeeze another set out down the road, since between this and last time, I’ve only covered 62 countries. However, I really felt like this batch was hard work to acquire, and some are more “horror adjacent” than genuine horror. Many countries may make horror, but have no interest in exporting subtitled copies to the Western world. Most of Africa likely falls into this category, and that’s more than fifty countries. Admittedly, I have again consciously avoided the obvious candidates, so if I lifted that self-imposed embargo, I’d have a foundation to build on (US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Japan, Korea, France, Italy, Spain). We’ll see. Might be a while before Chris can hear the words “Turkish horror” without flinching.

Anyway, as the month evolves the list below should expand as the film are reviewed. Get ready to clock up some air-miles!