As an avid enthusiast of the horror genre, I’m always on the hunt for new types of horror films to entertain myself. Around the time that I got back into horror films around 2020, I had heard of a new movement of films from France called “New French Extremity” which were known for being unlike many other horror films. I decided to give them a try and have quickly become enthusiastic about these films and, while I haven’t seen as many as I would like due to lack of availability, I thought it would be worth taking a look at the incredible films of the New French Extremity.
The New French Extremity is a relatively recent development in French cinema, having developed around the beginning of the 2000s. However, these films draw upon a wide range of influences from both within and without French culture with the intention of being transgressive. These films typically portray their content quite realistically with little to no supernatural elements, something that can make the violence and sex depicted in these movies quite hard to watch, and push the limits of the human body in their suffering. Notably, these films have been compared to the rise of the American splatter film or “torture porn” around the same time but director Pascal Laugier, director of Martyrs, rejected this comparison stating “The film deals with human pain, the meaning of it, which is something completely different.”
When it comes to the New French Extremity films themselves, you’ll see a wide variety of names listed with some particularly notable examples being High Tension, Martyrs, Inside, Frontiers, Irréversible and Revenge. As much as I would love to see all the films that the New French Extremity has to offer, I’ve found myself quite limited by what I could get my hands on. Beyond the fact that a lot of streaming services seem to have avoided these movies, I’ve also struggled to get my hands on physical copies of these films. Nonetheless, I have seen a few by this point and would like to share my thoughts on them.
My absolute favourite New French Extremity that I’ve seen would be Dans Ma Peau, known in English as In My Skin, written, directed and starring Marina de Van. The film follows a woman who seems to be doing well in life but ends up injuring her leg while she’s at a party. Oddly enough, she didn’t even realise that she had injured it until she notices that her leg is bleeding. She proceeds to become enamoured with self-mutilation and we watch how self-destructive this becomes in her life. It’s an absolutely incredible film and one that I have difficulty describing to people since it’s one of the most unique horror films I have ever seen.
I also enjoyed Martyrs even if I had built up unrealistically high expectations for the sort of violence that I was going to see although the ending is something that I’ll always remember. Revenge was another New French Extremity film that I enjoyed but I do feel like it feels a little less extreme and a little more Hollywood than other New French Extremity movies. Frontiers is a film that I feel quite mixed on. On one hand, I do love the level of violence in the film as well as how wonderfully Texas Chainsaw Massacre it feels but the political message of the film feels forced, heavy-handed and terribly unsubtle. Finally, my least favourite New French Extremity film that I’ve seen is Sheitan. I don’t hate Sheitan but it felt quite lacking and felt like it was trying to be weird for the sake of it.
I have a couple of more New French Extremity DVDs/Blu-rays lined up and I’m quite eager to see more of these incredible films. Let me know your thoughts on the New French Extremity, which ones you’ve seen, which ones you’ve liked, which ones you’ve disliked, how these movies contrast with other horror films and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!