In France, the idea of horror is a little different than in Hollywood. In the past, French horror directors generally eschewed jump scares in favor of a feeling of creeping death. Cameras were distant, characters were blank and horror was imposing, if not a natural part of life. More recently, the French Extremist movement has plumbed the depths of gore and human nature, pillaging the worst of human behavior for chills. That aching dread one feels at the end of films by Wes Craven and John Carpenter—that not everything is going to be all right—is prevalent in many such films.
While there are a slew of issues with treating cinema as nationalistic, I do think it is a far greater binding agent than just language, so the entries on this list of the 20 best French horror films are ones that were produced at least in part in France.
