Euroshlock refers to a number of European arthouse films built around depictions of transgressive material that may shock and/or offend audiences. Often there is explicit sexual content (generally female). Gorn may also appear. The content of these films may be maudlin in tone and have the unfortunate message that "depraved" sex will lead to misery and death.
Gaspar Noé, Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Catherine Breillat are names associated with these films. France and Italy are also associated with the genre. Early example of this trope can be found in the 70s with Pier's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Thierry Zeno's Vase de Noces, Dusan Makavejev's Sweet Movie and Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. It has seen a resurgence in the 2000s.
Contrast:
- Le Film Artistique: Opaque, incomprehensible, and monochrome.
- Exploitation Film: Emphasizes over-the-top violence, gore, sexuality, and has a more morbid nature.
Films associated with this genre:
- Anything by Gaspar Noé.
- Caligula, of course. The writer was American, the director, setting and filming-location Italian, and the actors British.
- Funny Games
- The Green Elephant
- High Tension: It has a lot of the elements of Euroshlock, Gorn, a Downer Ending, and Leave the Camera Running (Tropes Are Not Bad, the beginning is hilarious), but it is has elements of a standard Slasher Film with a Genre Shift to action and another Genre Shift to Psychological Horror at the end.
- The Human Centipede
- In the Realm of the Senses is an odd example. The film is Japanese-language, set in Japan and by a Japanese director, but because of the ban on depictions of genitalia, it was listed as a French production and the final editing was completed there.
- Ken Park
- Last Tango in Paris - Arguably the Trope Maker.
- Man Bites Dog
- Martyrs
- Nekromantik
- The Piano Teacher
- Possession
- Romance
- Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
- A Serbian Film
- Sweet Movie
- W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
Tropes common to these films:
- Anvilicious
- Crapsack World
- Deliberately Monochrome
- Downer Ending
- Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory
- Gorn
- Gray-and-Gray Morality
- Humans Are Bastards
- It's Not Porn, It's Art
- Leave the Camera Running
- Le Film Artistique
- Male Frontal Nudity
- Nausea Fuel
- Squick
- True Art Is Angsty
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?
