Art horror

Poster for the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), one of the first art horror films

Art horror or arthouse horror (sometimes called elevated horror)^[1][2][3] is a sub-genre of both horror films and art-films. It explores and experiments with the artistic uses of horror.

Characteristics

Art-horror films tend to rely on atmosphere building, psychological character development, cinematic style and philosophical themes for effect – rather than straightforward scares.^[4][2][5]

Art-horror films have been described as "a fascinating byproduct of the collision of art and commerce, of genre convention and personal vision".^[4] Historically, the genre was loosely related to J-horror and Italian Giallo.^[4] In the 2000s, a movement of transgressive films in France known as "New French Extremity" has been described as an arthouse horror film movement.^[6]

Although commentators have suggested some horror films have exemplified qualities applicable to "art horror" for many decades, the term became more widely used during the 2010s, with independent film company A24 credited with popularising the genre.^[2][3][7] The term "elevated horror" was first used in the early 2010s, and subsequently has been the subject of criticism and debate among film critics as it became more widely used.^[8][9][10]

In his book Art-Horror (2023) Adrian Gmelch identifies 4 aspects that can be an orientation for the definition of art-horror (no claim to present a universal definition): (1) Film historical and artistic imprinting, (2) horror as a message vehicle, (3) recurring motifs and stylistic elements as well as (4) unique visual identity and aesthetics.^[11]

Notable art horror films

20th century

• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)^[12]
• Haxan (Benjamin Christensen, 1922)^[13]
• Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)^[12][13]
• The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)^[14]
• M (Fritz Lang, 1931)^[14]
• Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)^[15][13]
• The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)^[12]
• Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)^[15]
• The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)^[4]
• I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)^[15]
• Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1954)
• Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)^[12]
• Eyes without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)^[12][13]
• Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)^[12]
• The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)^[12]
• Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962)^[12][13]
• Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964)^[12]
• Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, 1965)^[12]
• Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)^[12]
• Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)^[12][16]
• Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)^[16]
• Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)^[17]
• Images (Robert Altman, 1972)^[4]
• Don't Look Now (Nicloas Roeg, 1973)^[12]
• Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey, 1973)^[13]
• Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)^[18]
• Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1973)^[14][13]
• Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey, 1974)^[13]
• Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)^[13]
• Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)^[12][13]
• Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)^[19]
• Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)^[12][13]
• Hausu (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)^[12][13]
• The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)^[14][13]
• The Driller Killer (Abel Ferrara, 1979)^[20][21]
• Vengeance Is Mine (Shōhei Imamura, 1979)^[14]
• Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog, 1979)^[22]
• The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)^[12]
• Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981)^[4]
• Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)^[23]
• The Hunger (Tony Scott, 1983) ^[24][25]
• Wicked City (Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1987)^[26]
• The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 1988)^[14][13]
• Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 1990)^[27]
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992)^[14]
• Cronos (Guillermo del Toro, 1993)^[14][13]
• Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)^[28]
• Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)^[14]
• Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1997)^[29]
• Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)^[4]

21st century

• The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, 2001)^[30]
• Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)^[13]
• Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)^[12]
• Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis, 2001)^[16]
• High Tension (Alexandre Aja, 2003)^[6]
• Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006)^[31]
• Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)^[12]
• Frontier(s) (Xavier Gens, 2007)^[6]
• Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2008)^[6]
• Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)^[32]
• Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009)^[33]
• Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)^[34][13]
• Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)^[35]
• Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos, 2010)^[36]
• A Field in England, (Ben Wheatley, 2013)^[12]
• Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)^[37]
• Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)^[4]
• Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)^[4]
• The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)^[38]
• Goodnight Mommy (Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, 2014)
• It Follows (David Robert Mitchell), 2014)^[39]
• Evolution (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015)
• The Lure (Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2015)^[13]
• The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)^[2]
• The Neon Demon (Nicholas Winding Refn, 2016)^[37]
• Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016)^[40]
• Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016)^[41]
• Kizumonogatari (Tatsuya Oishi, 2016)^[42]
• Mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017)^[37]
• Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)^[43]
• It Comes at Night (Trey Edward Shults, 2017)^[44]
• The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2017)^[45]
• One Cut of the Dead (Shin'ichirō Ueda, 2017)^[46]
• Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018)^[47]
• A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018)^[9]
• Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018)^[48]
• Climax (Gaspar Noé, 2018)^[49]
• The House That Jack Built (Lars von Trier, 2018)^[50]
• Possum (Matthew Holness, 2018)^[51]
• Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino, 2018)^[17][52]
• Mandy (Panos Cosmatos, 2018)^[53]
• The Wolf House (Cristobal León & Joaquín Cociña, 2018)^[54]
• Us (Jordan Peele, 2019)^[55]
• Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)^[2][56]
• The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, 2019)^[33]
• Saint Maud (Rose Glass, 2019)^[1]
• Roh (Emir Ezwan, 2019)^[57]
• Relic (Natalie Erika James, 2020)^[1]
• Friend of the World (Brian Patrick Butler, 2020)^[58]
• Cryptozoo (Dash Shaw, 2021)^[59]
• Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes (Kevin Kopacka, 2021)^[60]
• Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson, 2021)^[61]
• We're All Going to the World's Fair (Jane Schoenbrun, 2021)^[62]
• Titane (Julia Ducournau, 2021)^[63]
• Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022)^[64]
• The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022)^[65]
• Men (Alex Garland, 2022)^[66]
• Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball, 2022)^[67]
• Talk to Me (RackaRacka, 2022)^[68]
• Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, 2023)^[69]
• I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun, 2024)^[70]
• The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024)
• Longlegs (Oz Perkins, 2024)

Notable directors

• Alexandre Aja^[6]
• Joko Anwar^[71][72]
• Dario Argento^[15][13][16]
• Ari Aster^[11][37][56]
• Mario Bava^[15]
• Ingmar Bergman^[16]
• Panos Cosmatos^[36]
• David Cronenberg^[14][31][16]
• Brian de Palma^[16]
• Guillermo del Toro^[14][12][16]
• Claire Denis^[16]
• Julia Ducournau^[41]
• Robert Eggers^[2][11][73]
• Abel Ferrara^[74]
• Georges Franju^[13]
• Michael Haneke^[14]
• Herk Harvey^[14][16]
• Werner Herzog^[4]
• Alfred Hitchcock^[12][14]
• Richard Kelly^[16]
• Stanley Kubrick^[15]
• David Lynch^[16][13]
• Takashi Miike^[4]
• Paul Morrissey^[16]
• Jordan Peele^[75]
• Oz Perkins^[11]
• Roman Polanski^[12][17]
• Nicholas Roeg^[76]
• George A. Romero^[16]
• Jacques Tourneur^[4]
• Marina de Van^[6]
• Lars von Trier^[77][16]
• Peter Weir^[16]

See also

• Arthouse animation
• Social thriller
• New Hollywood
• New French Extremity
• Arthouse musical
• Arthouse science fiction film
• Arthouse action film
• Vulgar auteurism
• Extreme cinema
• Postmodern horror

References

1. "5 'Elevated' Horrors Every Film Buff Needs To See". British Vogue. 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
2. "How A24 Horror Movies & Arthouse Horror Became Popular In The 2010s". ScreenRant. 2021-01-15. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
3. "This Was the Decade Horror Got "Elevated"". Vanity Fair. 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
4. "Under the Skin, Only Lovers Left Alive, and a Brief History of the Art-Horror Film". Vulture. 17 April 2014. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
5. 10 Best Arthouse Horror Movies, Ranked - Taste of Cinema
6. West, Alexandra (2016-05-20). Films of the New French Extremity: Visceral Horror and National Identity. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-6348-7.
7. Best Horror Movies – 100 Scary Movies To Watch Now, Ranked By... Time Out
8. Ehrlich, David (2019-03-25). "The Evils of 'Elevated Horror' — IndieWire Critics Survey". IndieWire. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
9. Barber, Nicholas. "Is horror the most disrespected genre?". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
10. Why Elevated Horror Is an Unnecessary and Elitist Term – Horror Obsessive
11. Gmelch, Adrian (2023-04-25). Art-Horror: The Films of Ari Aster and Robert Eggers. Create Space. ISBN 979-8364720719.
12. Scott-Travis, Shane (28 October 2016). "The 25 Most Artistic Horror Movies of All Time". Taste of Cinema – Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
13. The Criterion Channel's October 2023 Lineup|Current|The Criterion Collection
14. Bibbiani, William (2019-04-26). "Arthouse of Horrors: The Scariest Movies on The Criterion Channel!". Bloody Disgusting!. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
15. "The Art-Horror Film: Genius or Pretentious?". Horror Movies. 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
16. Art-House Horror - The Criterion Channel
17. "Art House Films Are Changing Horror". Horror. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
18. "Ganja and Hess". Austin Film Society. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
19. Nero, Dom (2018-10-10). "'Opening Night' Is the Ultimate Arthouse Horror Film". Esquire. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
20. The Driller Killer – Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings – TV Guide
21. The Driller Killer – Enzian Theater
22. 11 Art-House Horror Movie To Watch This Halloween Instead Of The Typical Slashers – HuffPost
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24. Cut by Cut: Parallel Editing in The Hunger (1983) – Horror Movie Reviews – Horror Movieroom
25. THE HUNGER (1983) – Horror Cult Films
26. 10 of the Best Asian Arthouse Horror Movies For a Visually Terrifying Halloween|Collider
27. The strange, surprising legacy of Jacob’s Ladder — Little White Lies
28. Pulling Focus: Safe (1995) — Taste of Cinema
29. Chapman, Paul (9 August 2018). "Satoshi Kon's Psychological Thriller "Perfect Blue" Heads to U.S. Theaters". Crunchyroll. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
30. Scary Stories for the Thinking Man – The Austin Chronicle
31. The 10 Best Arthouse Horror Films to Stream | The Manual
32. "Let The Right One In". The A.V. Club. 4 February 2010. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
33. "5 Artsy Horror Movies That Are Overhyped (& 5 That Are Actually Brilliant)". ScreenRant. 2021-02-06. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
34. "Art Horror Series". Austin Film Society. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
35. In 2010, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan Turned Art into Beautiful, Genuine Terror – Consequence of Sound
36. Trippy horror/fantasy Beyond the Black Rainbow gets DVD/Blu-ray release date – JoBlo
37. Hadsell, Brian (2018-06-16). "'Hereditary'—Like: The 5 Best Recent Arthouse Horror Movies". TVOvermind. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
38. Howell, Amanda (2017), Ryan, Mark David; Goldsmith, Ben (eds.), "Haunted Art House: The Babadook and International Art Cinema Horror", Australian Screen in the 2000s, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 119–139, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-48299-6_6, ISBN 978-3-319-48298-9, retrieved 2022-02-20
39. 'It Follows' Box Office: How Indie Horror Film Became Cult Sensation – Deadline
40. DeHart, Jonathan (June 6, 2016). "Godzilla Resurgence: Japan Reboots Its Most Iconic Monster". The Diplomat. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
41. "'Titane' director on the queer body horror film seducing critics, bewildering audiences". NBC News. 13 October 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
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44. It Comes at Night Shows the Subtle Art of New Horror Films – Time Magazine
45. ‘Killing of a Sacred Deer’ Review: Arthouse Thriller Would Make Kubrick Proud – Rolling Stone
46. Shawhan, Jason (12 September 2019). "One Cut of the Dead Makes Played-Out Elements Fresh". Nashville Scene. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
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49. Climax (2018): Bringing New Life to the Horror Genre – Medium
50. Beyond the Arthouse Bait-and-Switch of Lars von Trier’s ‘The House That Jack Built’, the Director’s Cut – Frieze
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60. "DAWN BREAKS BEHIND THE EYES, Trippy Homage to Euro-Gothic Horror". June 23, 2021.
61. "New A24 Horror Movie Lamb Could be the Craziest Film of the Fall". July 28, 2021.
62. "Director Jane Schoenbrun on the Extremely Online, Gender Dysphoric Coming-of-Age Journey in 'We're All Going to the World's Fair'". 14 April 2022.
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65. "The Menu: A Really Weird Movie". thesewaneepurple.org. 15 February 2023.
66. "Artistic horror movie 'Men' tackles man-ipulated 'women'". Daily Sabah. July 27, 2022.
67. "Inside 'Skinamarink': The $15,000 Horror Movie That's Captivated TikTok". Rolling Stone. 10 January 2023.
68. ‘Talk to Me’ Is a Thrillingly Weird Horror-Movie Debut From A24 – Rolling Stone
69. Beau is Afraid a blood-curdling work of art. Joaquin Phoenix elevates horror to new heights – ThePrint
70. 'I Saw the TV Glow' review: Queer horror has a new arthouse masterpiece – Mashable
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73. "12 Arthouse Horror Directors Who Are Reinventing The Genre". theplaylist.net. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
74. Abel Ferrara interview: Driller Killer, Bad Lieutenant, Body Snatchers|Den of Geek
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77. Antichrist|Austin Film Society

Further reading

• David Church (2021). Post-Horror: Art, Genre, and Cultural Elevation. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1474475891.
• Adrian Gmelch (2023). Art-Horror: The Films of Ari Aster and Robert Eggers. Create Space. ISBN 979-8364720719.
• Joan Hawkins (2000). Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and the Horrific Avant-Garde. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816634149.
• Stuart Hanscomb (2010). "Existentialism and Art-Horror", Sartre Studies International 16:1, pp. 1–23.

External links

• List of art-horror films – Taste of Cinema blog
• "The Ultimate List of Art-house Horror" – IMDB