Foreign horror and other favorities.

[rpgspree]

Aside from the occasional gem, I feel that American horror has gotten stale, so I've been going more international in hopes of finding something original. I honestly wasn't expecting much when I set on this quest. Though some foreign flicks were just as disappointing, many others were a pleasant surprise. In fact, more than a few classic Japanese horror films had Hollywood remakes. Some better, some worse.

My recommendations come with a few caveats. First is subtitles. Unless you have a decent grasp of the original language, you're going to be stuck reading all of the dialog. In my experience, horror films rarely get dubs. Frankly, the voice-over performances usually are so dreadful that you'd want to switch to subtitles anyway. Horror films fortunately aren't as overly conversational as dramas. That said, the readability varies wildly depending on the pacing of the text. Ideally, the length of the text should be consistent with a timing that flows with the conversations and scenes, leaving the text up long enough to read it before jumping to the next line. Some poorly subtitled films wildly range from short snips to large blocks of text. Even worse, some leave the subtitles up for about the same length of time regardless of how long the text is. Even after watching dozens of subtitled films, I still have problems with those that were poorly done. Although you can pause during dialog heavy scenes to catch up, it does get annoying after awhile.

The second is cultural symbolism. That's always going to be an issue with foreign films in general. While that doesn't necessarily prevent the films from being enjoyable or understandable, there's things that will leave you wondering if you missed something. I've especially found this to be a problem with Asian horror. Well directed films tend to bridge that gap by presenting the relevant information visually and through dialog in a way that's (mostly) comprehensible to foreign audiences. Other directors apparently get lost in being culturally "clever", leaving a film that's clear as mud to outsiders, or they just suck at their job.

Lastly is budgets. Foreign films generally don't have Hollywood blockbuster budgets. While that has an overall affect on production quality, I find that many other factors such as writing and directing have more impact on the whether a film is enjoyable. Personally, it's less about how grandiose the budget is than how well it's spent. In the last decade, as technology has gotten more affordable, I've noticed a considerable improvement in production quality in foreign and indie films. This has given thrifty producers far more options to bring their creations to life. As Hollywood gets lost in blotted-budget reboots, others are stepping up their game.