Do you watch French horror movies ?

French horror cinema is it in crisis? We just have to count the number of entries of the few films released in the last ten years to answer this question. They barely manage to attract more than 50,000 people, at least for the best French horror movie. And yet the horror genre still attracts, especially American movies, they can record more than 500,000 viewers in France, such as Piranha 3D.

How to explain a such difference?

The French documentary “Viande d’origine française” (Meat from France) by Xavier Sayanoff and Tristan Shulman try to answer. Released on November 14, 2009 on Canal +  during  "the night of the Willies." It was followed by three horror films of different origins: the French movie Martyrs, Eden Lake for the English cinema and Diary of the Dead from the USA.

The autopsy conducted by the two directors revealed several findings that elucidate the gap between French horror movies and American, Spanish or English horror movies. There are differents reasons wich can be classify into two main problems: the first is the problem of production for the funding issue and the other is the director’s works for the artistic aspect.

There is a major difference between the production of a horror movie in France and the American horror movie production. It’s a money problem. On average a horror film in France costs less than €5 million . A movie as The horde of Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher had to manage a zombie’s movie for  two million euros, whereas Zack Snyder's remake of Zombie spent $ 28 million. French horror film directors have a real and strong difficulty of financing, it is very difficult to find money.

A French horror film can never be funded in the same way as Welcome to Sticks or an Asterix. Only Canal + opens the wallet when it’s about a film with  lot of blood, violence and fear. And it's not a crazy sum of money, on the contrary, because once again these films may not be broadcast during primetime and attract a lot of viewers. It is often very difficult for a horror film to  have accept to get the CNC  grant. Today, a single film has received an advance on receipts. So, it’s very difficult to compete with a Hollywood blockbuster that has accustomed the audience to a high quality visual effects, a source of significant expenditure.

The financial aspect  has a huge impact on the artistic side. A French director is artistically limited by the movie’s budget. This is a real constraint for  French directors, who grew up with an aesthetic of films that often draws its origin in American movies.

Then, it must be said, there are French horror films that are considered very bad by the specialists of terror, as critics of Mad movies. Behind, there is often a desire to copy and paste American films from producer, as for example in Frontier with excessive violence. it is obvious this kind of movie has a very bad reputation in France, only two or three had good reviews. However, if these films do not meet their audiences in France, they raise a strong foreign interest . A film like St Ange was a success in Japan. The American industry has a good opinion about our young filmmakers. In fact many of them leave and works in theUS.


French horror film is a victim of a vicious cycle, low budget has a bad impact on  visual aspect. The audience does not want to move to see such films and these failures are additional arguments for all producers or TV channels to refuse investment.  

So, our French directors  go to work in the country of Uncle Sam, in English and with a huge budget. And finally, French directors are successfull  and they make a name in the industry, as Alexandre Aja who shot his last three films in the U.S.

Sarah