10 Foreign Language Horror Films Hollywood Doesn't Have The Balls To Remake
5. Salò, Or The 120 Days Of Sodom (1975)
Language: Italian
Notorious Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini made a living out of committing revolting fetishes to film before his sudden and mysterious death in 1975, the same year that Salò was released to widespread uproar. While the late director classified his movie as a statement film intended as a commentary on post-Mussolini Italy, his reasoning fell on deaf ears for many, who saw nothing but a manifestation of his grotesque sexual perversions.
Based on the Marquis de Sade’s 1785 novel of the same name, the film follows four wealthy men as they kidnap a group of 18 teenage boys and girls (many of them underage) and subject them to extreme physical, sexual and mental abuse. The torture is drawn out over four long months, ranging from bog standard - by Pasolini standards, at least - degradation like faeces eating and hot branding to unbearable acts of cruelty like death by burnt genitals.
The movie wraps up with a graphic massacre in which the majority of the kidnapped group meet grisly ends at the hands of their twisted captors, an ending fitting for a snuff movie. Despite its sordid content, however, a number of filmmakers have protested against it being banned in numerous countries, claiming that it does actually have some cinematic merit.
Martin Scorsese was among a group of filmmakers and scholars who signed a legal brief in defence of the film on artistic grounds, though unsurprisingly the American director has never sought to remake the film for American audiences.