Different regional flavors of exploitation/horror films...

Felt like writting some commentary about the unique contributions of various countries to horror/exploitation.

Japan: "Pinku Eiga"



Pinku eiga ("pink films") were big in Japan during the 70's, as exemplified in production companies like Nakatsu and Toei. Many of them consisted of soft-core pornography, often with a fetish bent in dealing with themes such as lesbianism, rape and bondage/S&M (such as the Flowers & Snake films) but pink films also commonly featured high production values, competant direction/cinemography and complicated plots. Some of the "sukeban" films (dealing with schoolgirls) are outrageously entertaining, especially Terrifying Girls High School.

France: "New Extremity"



French "New Extremity" is kind of what got me into horror and exploitation in the first place, really (after watching a couple of the newer French horror films years back). Critic James Quint describes it as:

Bava as much as Bataille, Salo no less than Sade seem the determinants of a cinema suddenly determined to break every taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or gnarled, and subject it to all manner of penetration, mutilation, and defilement.

I know, it sounds good to me, as well. A good deal of these films are actually arthouse movies, though, such as the film pictured above (Beatrice Dalle in "Trouble Every Day"). Nonetheless, people have commonly relegated newer French horror films like Inside, Frontiers, In My Skin, High Tension and Martyrs into the category of French New Extremity, as well as the films of Gasper Noe. Two of those in particular (Inside and Martyrs) rank as probably the most violent mainstream horror films I've seen in recent years.

Italy: "Giallo"



Giallos are usually what cinephiles like to watch if they have pretentions of being exploitation fans. Usually characterized by stylish photography/set design and ludicrous acting (almost always involving plenty of T&A), giallos are probably the most iconically Italian of all film types (with the exception of neo-realism, I suppose). I used to hate these films, but over the years I've grown to love them, some very much so. Most Italian genre directors of the era participated in the making of at least one giallo, others many: Joe D'Amato, Mario Bava, and Lucio Fulci all did 'em, as well as directors for whom giallos were their defining work, like Argento and Martino. The giallo style has since spread beyond Italy's borders, though...for example, the Belgian neo-giallo "Amer", or the Russian giallo "Solitude Of Blood".

United States: "Hicksploitation"



To be sure, the United States doesn't have the exclusive market on this...other countries have dabbled with the theme of crazy rural people. However, IMO those ventures have mostly only met with limited success (or sometimes total failure, in the case of "Eden Lake" from the UK). Probably the best foreign film I've seen dealing with killer hillbillies is Rituals (1977), a Canadian film starring Hal Halbrooke. Part of the reason why the United States has it's own stamp on this genre is because there really isn't an equivalent of Appalachia or the Deep South in, say, the UK or France. It's an uniquely American culture which, unfortunately, has been the subject of a lot of speculation regarding the poverty and supposed clanishness that exists there. There really is a distinct class element in films like Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, although in some films it's more pronounced than in others.

There was actually a really good film from this genre made recently called "White Lightnin'" (2009) about Jesco White, the "dancing outlaw". That film is absolutely nuts and stuck in my head for days after watching it, I highly recommend checking it out.

Essential viewing:

Pinku : Terrifying Girls High School, Sex & Fury, Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs
New Extremity: Inside, Martyrs, Trouble Every Day
Giallo: Don't Torture A Duckling, Your Vice Is A Locked Room, Tenebre
Hicksploitation: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gator Bait, White Lightnin'

Nunsploitation:
Flavia The Heritic
The Other Hell
The Killer Nun
Sister Emanuelle