Since the earliest day of moviemaking, European directors haven't been afraid to take risks and experiment with all kinds of storytelling techniques. These filmmakers often beat their American peers to the punch, especially when it comes to suspense, chills, and shocking narrative arcs. Ask almost any established American director, and they will acknowledge the influence of European cinema on their art.
Hollywood is known for remaking foreign language films from all over the world. The home of America's film industry loves to peruse European titles in order to garner inspiration for new projects. While the original features usually overshadow their reworked English-language counterparts, these remakes sometimes end up improving upon their predecessors.
10 Better: The Virgin Spring (1960) Vs. The Last House On The Left (1972)
In the Swedish film The Virgin Spring, actor Max Von Sydow plays a devout Christian in medieval Sweden whose daughter is brutally assaulted and murdered by a group of pagan drifters. Director Ingmar Bergman relies on emotional pain, philosophical ruminations, and the tense relationship between innocence and gritty reality to follow Von Sydow's character as he decides to enact bloody retribution upon his daughter's killers.
The Virgin Spring is a much better revenge thriller than the American film based on it: Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left. A low-budget exploitation flick, The Last House on the Left employs extreme violence as two grief-stricken parents slay the people responsible for their daughter's torturous demise.
9 Worse: La Chienne (1931) Vs. Scarlet Street (1945)
While Jean Renoir's 1931 film La Chienne tells a more honest story about an older man who falls in love with a young sex worker, its 1945 remake Scarlet Street is embued with a kind of noir moodiness only capable from director Fritz Lang. Both films deal with rejection, oppressive relationships, and violent outbursts.
In Scarlet Street, Edward G. Robinson plays a cashier and aspiring artist named Christopher who becomes smitten with Joan Bennett's character Kitty. Kitty, who is loyal to her swindler lover Johnny, exploits Christopher's feelings for her in order to make a few bucks off the older man's paintings.
8 Better: Les Diaboliques (1955) Vs. Diabolique (1996)
Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 film Les Diaboliques is a taut exercise in masterfully crafted mayhem. It follows two women who conspire to kill tyrannical school headmaster Michel Delassalle; one of the women is his wife, and the other is his mistress.
The 1996 remake, Diabolique, pales in comparison to the original. Disavowing any plot points that amplify cerebral terror, the modern refashioning starring Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani lacks suspense, intrigue, or compelling characters.
7 Worse: La Jetée (1966) Vs. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Chris Marker's French-language short film La Jetée provides a much different cinematic experience than Terry Gilliam's feature-length sci-fi movie 12 Monkeys. Told almost entirely from still photos, La Jetée follows a mask forced to travel through time after a nuclear apocalypse.
This influential and experimental movie just isn't as accessible as its 1995 remake — which may be offputting for some moviegoers. 12 Monkeys sees Bruce Willis playing a time-traveling prisoner who is sent back to 1996 to uncover the source of a virus that has wiped out most of humanity.
6 Better: Spoorloos (1988) Vs. The Vanishing (1993)
The Dutch film Spoorloos, released in America as The Vanishing, is an unforgiving and disturbing thriller about a woman who disappears from a gas station while on a biking vacation with her boyfriend. Known for its intense character studies and shocking finale, The Vanishing is hailed by critics as a complete sucker punch.
Even though the American remake includes fantastic performances from Kiefer Sutherland, Jeff Bridges, and Sandra Bullock, it suffers from getting the Hollywood treatment. Sharp, emotionally excruciating sequences are abandoned for happier, less evocative ones.
5 Worse: Le Dernier Tournant (1939) Vs. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Both 1939's Le Dernier Tournier and 1945's The Postman Always Rings Twice are based on the 1934 novel by James M. Cain. Both tell the story of a drifter who lands a job at a small-town service station where he falls for his boss' young wife.
It's the undeniable chemistry between actors Lana Turner and John Garfield in the American film that makes it all the more potent. Turner plays the ultimate femme fatale, who carries on an illicit affair with Garfield's character while plotting to kill her husband.
4 Better: Brødre (2004) Vs. Brothers (2009)
Jim Sheridan's 2009 war thriller Brothers is much more melodramatic than the 2004 Danish film it's based on. Both films, inspired by Homer's ancient epic poem The Odyssey, tell the story of a prisoner-of-war who returns home after being presumed dead by his family.
While the American remake is hailed for its acting, especially Tobey Maguire's performance as the soldier, it fails to hit the timbre and severity of the original Brødre. The original also does a much better job of exploring the horror of wars and how PTSD sinks its teeth into survivors.
3 Worse: Insomnia (1997) Vs. Insomnia (2002)
The 1997 Norwegian crime thriller Insomnia stars Stellan Skarsgård as a detective investigating the murder of a teenage girl in a town located above the Arctic circle. Its twists, turns, and emotional blows match the tone of Christopher Nolan's 2002 remake, but the original lacks two things: Al Pacino and Robin Williams.
Nolan's film, which unravels in Alaska, follows Pacino's detective character as he engages in a cat-and-mouse game with Williams' character — the presumed murderer of a dead girl. 2002's Insomnia may be a bit too conventional for its own good at times, but the friction generated between Pacino and Williams cannot be contained.
2 Better: Nattevagten (1994) Vs. Nightwatch (1997)
A young Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars in 1994's Danish film Nattevagten, which translates to Nightwatch in English. Coster-Waldau plays a security guard at the Forensics Medicine Institute who becomes implicated in the heinous murders of women around Copenhagen.
The film's director, Ole Bordenal, decided to remake his movie for American audiences in 1997, but much of the original film's psychological impactfulness is lost in translation. While Ewan McGregor does his best in the remake, Nattevagten is much better.
1 Worse: Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) Vs. The Girl With Dragon Tattoo (2011)
The original Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson's popular novel The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo is only slightly overshadowed by David Fincher's 2011 remake. Both Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara give outstanding performances as the film's punk protagonist Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional investigator who helps a disgraced journalist solve a decades-old disappearance.
Misogyny and violence against women are explored with unapologetic intensity in each film, but Fincher's aesthetics take the story's chilling Scandinavian setting to the next level. With his muted color scheme and perfect pacing, Fincher proves himself king of the macabre.
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