and the Italian schlock horror films AREN'T a niche market?

those 2 particular niches arent very comparable - exept for some pretty broad comparrisons ..

but they are both niche markets. You can't say "oh, but this one is a niche market" when the other one is as well

its funy but for some reson i dont think of the German silents as a niche market ... dont know why ..


but as for comparing them re. 'greatness ...

the German films are classics .. groundbreaking ..
like i said before their influence is still felt today.
(watch Calgari, then watch Edward Scissorhands)

A lot of Italian horror was influenced, more than influencing..
(although i'm sure their films influenced a lot of other filmmakers directly)
I dont know if Carpenter was influenced by Bay of Blood - but a lot of other filmmakers were influenced by Carpenter)

so niche or not i think you're comparing a small body of classic films to a huge body of mostly shlock films.
(there are some 'classic' italian horror films .. but not in the same classification of 'classic' as the german silents..

1. Italy - Fulci

2. France - Switchblade romance

In its current and recent state, I would have to with UK!

- 28 Days Later
- Dog Soldiers
- The Descent
- Creep
- Wilderness
- Broken
- Evil Aliens

I'd say its pretty hard to beat...

Goddamn English foreigners.

Anyway, I though this was the 'Japanese Horror' forum (incorporating Asia, specifically The Orient)?

ste has always felt that it was too exclusive for the forum

(despite the fact that at the time asian horror has been the biggest influence on the genre since the italian wave)

i personally feel that since this is more of an exploitation forum than just horror - and asians are probably the biggest producers of exploitation films (taking kick/samurai movies into consideration) - that it's entirely appropriate to have a piece of the forum devoted to asian films ..