The best French movies to watch this Halloween

Diabolique – or Les Diaboliques, as it’s known in France – is the perfect watch for fans of crime classics. A revenge plot centred around two women and their plan to murder a school principal, this black-and-white horror shocked audiences when it debuted in 1955.

Winner of the Palme D’or 2021, Titane is the story of a girl, Alexia, whose life and mind take a strange turn after she receives a titanium implant in her skull following a car accident. At turns random, violent, heartwarming and terrifying, this film is not for the faint of heart!

This isn’t your typical period piece. The Poisoning Angel is about a serial killer and her exploits in a small community in 19th century France. What's scariest is that this is based on a true story!

Available on France Channel.

The new miniseries on Netflix isn't the only retelling of this famous short story by the American gothic writer Edgar Allen Poe. This early French adaptation is one of the most striking films of the silent movie era.

One of the most well-known classics of psychological horror, Eyes without a Face tells the story of a surgeon and the lengths he will go to to restore his daughter’s face after it becomes disfigured in a horrible automobile accident.

Thousands of dead bodies are resurrected in a small French town – but this isn’t your typical zombie movie. They Came Back focuses on the efforts of the reawakened dead to reintegrate into society.

Available on France Channel.

If it isn’t exactly a horror movie, that’s because this odd, erratic yet beguiling film defies categorisation. A mysterious man, played by Denis Lavant, is taken on a drive to various appointments in Paris, for each of which he assumes a new identity and plays a new, peculiar role. Holy Motors is surreal, spooky, and even features a cameo appearance from Kylie Minogue.

If you’re in the mood for a documentary, The Frankenstein Complex explores how filmmakers have used special effects to create some of the scariest, freakiest and most famous monsters in cinema history.

Available on France Channel.

From the same director as Titane, Raw is one of the most effective films that explores cannibalism. After a student at veterinarian school tastes human flesh for the first time, her efforts to satisfy her cravings become more and more twisted.