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Ernest Mathijs
University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Rape and Religion (But No Nuns); The European Marketing and Reception of Belgian Horror Cinema

Belgian horror cinema has a curious reputation. While local patrons and critics shun it, it fares extremely well on the global market, both commercially and critically. And while Belgian critics fail to construct arguments on how their nation’s horror movies address local cultural concerns, many international observers have no qualms making casual links to local cultural excesses, with controversial cases of sexual abuse as symptomatic evidence (Mathijs, 2004a/b/c, 2005a/b).

This paper argues that the main reason for this complex distinction lies in the attitudes with which local and international distributors, reviewers, and audiences approach the key tropes of rape and religion in Belgian horror narratives. As a case in point, I present a comparative study of the local and European prefigurations and receptions of these tropes in Daughters of Darkness (1971). The Devil’s Nightmare (1972), The Antwerp Killer (1983), Lucker (1986), Rabid Grannies (1990), Man Bites Dog (1992), S. (1998), and The Ordeal (2004).

Based on the analysis of about 300 publicity materials and reviews, this paper assesses these films’ national and international marketing strategies, and their critical receptions in Belgium and four other European countries (the Netherlands, France, the UK and Germany; for methodology, see Barker, Mathijs & Mendik, 2006; Barker & Mathijs, 2007). It demonstrates how ‘rape’ and ‘religion’ have become differently coded references for Belgian horror. On a local level they are directly representational (hence invoking some anxiety, and a refusal to discuss them), while on a – more remote – international level they are seen as textual properties; powerful but less topical. It explains the ironic situation of how, internationally, these films’ cultural address is more easily acknowledged (and celebrated as cult) because they are less relevant, whereas on a national level they are too sensitive to be lifted out of their immediate frame of reference: stuck in culture nationally, elevated to cult internationally.

In conclusion, this paper argues, with Charles Acland (2004), that in an era of global receptions, the study of horror cinema needs to combine both a national and international approach (see also: Schneider, 2003; Schneider & Williams, 2005) if it aims to understand the genre’s public presence.

References

Acland, Charles (2004). Screen Traffic; Movies, Multiplexes and Global Culture. Durham: Duke University Press.

Barker, Martin & Ernest Mathijs (2007). ‘Seeing the Promised Land From Afar: Lord of the Rings Foreign Audiences’ Reception of New Zealand’; In: Adam Lam and Nataliya Oryshchuk (eds). How We Became Middle-Earth: a Collection of Essays on The Lord of the Rings. Publisher to be disclosed.

Barker, Martin, Ernest Mathijs & Xavier Mendik (2006). The Blood Red North: The International Reception of the Ginger Snaps Trilogy. In Film International. Vol. 21 (forthcoming).

Mathijs, Ernest (2004a). "Nobody is Innocent: Cinema and Sexuality in Contemporary Belgian Culture"; in: Social Semiotics. Vol. 14, Nr. 1. p. 85-101.

Mathijs, Ernest (2004b). “Daughters of Darkness”; In: Ernest Mathijs (ed.). The Cinema of the Low Countries. New York/ London: Columbia University Press/ Wallflower Press. 96-106.

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European Nightmares - An International Conference on European Horror Cinema

1st – 2nd June 2006

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