Julia Ducournau’s favourite horror movies: “It’s a Greek tragedy”
Few recent horror directors have broken out in quite the same way as Julia Ducournau. As it stands, she has just two feature-length movies under her belt, but they are both top-drawer. The first, 2016’s Raw, is a coming-of-age teen drama with a cannibal twist, while 2021’s Titane is a wild thrill ride that will change the way you look at cars forever. Both are gloriously twisted, bloody, and, above everything else, original.
This makes you wonder where the maestro gets her ideas from. Her propensity for bizarre body horror immediately draws comparisons to the likes of David Cronenberg and David Lynch, but there’s more to her than exploding heads and waking dreams.
In the long list of ‘favourite’ films assembled by Indie Wire, Ducournau revealed her love for some absolute classics, including Brian De Palma’s Carrie. There are more than a few comparisons between this Stephen King adaptation and the Frenchwoman’s groundbreaking debut feature – both are about young girls who turn to the dark side in the face of isolation – and the director agrees. She also admitted to Fandom that she took a lead from De Palma’s famous blood shower scene, a knowing nod to her horror-savvy audience.
This was followed by Tobe Hooper’s 1974 bloodbath, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Ducournau described the movie as “one of the deepest movies in the genre that has ever been made. This is incredibly smart, incredibly political, the cinematography is amazing.”
Another gory highlight came in the form of lesser-known slasher Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Ducournau revealed that she is fascinated by the way the film “bends the audience’s morals”, presenting a sympathetic main character who just so happens to be a brutal murderer.
It’s not just the scary stuff that gets Ducournau going. Also named in her list are Sam Mendes’ war movie 1917 and the acclaimed satire Network. 1917, the story of two British soldiers attempting to deliver an important message during World War I, is famously edited to look as though it was filmed in one shot.
Mendes’ commitment to technical excellence inspired his European counterpart while making Titane, which is a serious presentational upgrade from her previous effort. As for Network, which stars Peter Finch as a news anchor who becomes something of a messianic figure on air, this directly influenced the making of the up-and-comer’s sophomore picture. Ducournau revealed that she had Titane star Agathe Rousselle study Finch’s famous ‘Mad as Hell’ monologue. Rousselle had never been in a feature before, so the speech was used as a way of getting her used to working on camera.
For all her left-field picks, Ducournau couldn’t help but make some obvious choices. Two Cronenberg films appear in the list, the first being Dead Ringers. “It’s like his opera,” she said in her Fandom interview. “It is an opera in five acts. It’s a Greek tragedy.”
Then came the big one – Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly. According to Ducournau, “This movie makes me cry over and over and over again each time I watch it.”
The sign of a great director is being able to draw inspiration from various different sources. Ducournau might be firmly embedded in the horror genre, but her viewing history betrays a far deeper understanding of cinema and its history.
