Calvaire
2004 · France/Belgium · 88m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyDeliverance relocated to the Belgian mud, and just as unwilling to let anyone leave.
Exploitation films of the 2000s
reelscum catalogues 14 exploitation films from the 2000s. They were released between 2000 and 2008. The subgenres that appear most often are Transgressive & midnight (10 films), Splatter (4 films) and Cannibal boom (2 films).
The countries credited most often are France (7), Japan (6) and South Korea (3). Directors with more than one entry in the decade include Park Chan-wook (2).
Entries include Calvaire (2004), Tokyo Gore Police (2008) and Trouble Every Day (2001). Each links to its own page with a verdict, rating axes and where to watch.
Tokyo Gore Police
2008 · Japan · 109m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyThe Japanese splatter movement at full arterial pressure, from the man who built it.
Trouble Every Day
2001 · France/Germany · 101m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyCannibal desire filmed like an art installation, and it will not hurry for you.
Frontier(s)
2007 · France/Switzerland · 101m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyTexas Chainsaw with a French accent and a swastika over the door.
Suicide Club
2001 · Japan · 99m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyOpens with fifty-four schoolgirls and an oncoming train. Then it gets stranger.
Inside
2007 · France · 83m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyThe French extremity wave stripped to one room, one night, and a pair of scissors.
Ichi the Killer
2001 · Japan · 129m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyMiike hands out sick bags at the premiere and earns every one of them.
A Tale of Two Sisters
2003 · South Korea · 110m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyKorea's classiest ghost story, and the one that actually rewards a rewatch.
High Tension
2003 · France · 87m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyAja before Hollywood, at maximum brutality, with a twist that still starts fights.
Martyrs
2008 · Canada/France · 95m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyThe New French Extremity's defining title, and the one that empties the room.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
2002 · South Korea · 121m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyThe coldest panel of Park's revenge trilogy, with no jokes and no mercy in it.
Irreversible
2002 · France · 97m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyNoe runs the night backwards so the horror lands before the love does, and half the cinema left before either.
Battle Royale
2000 · Japan · 113m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyA class of ninth-graders handed weapons and told to kill each other. Fukasaku at seventy, swinging hard.
Oldboy
2003 · South Korea/Japan · 116m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyThe corridor fight alone would earn its place. The last twenty minutes are why nobody forgets it.