Tybout: Horror movie lovers should look outside US borders

Horror fans, rest easy: Even if this season’s crop of scary movies seems limp and uninspired,… Horror fans, rest easy: Even if this season’s crop of scary movies seems limp and uninspired, the rest of the world is there to pick up the slack.

Rather than settling for the latest diminishment of the “Saw” franchise, I’d direct audiences to look overseas for more truly unsettling, less 3-D-dependent takes on the horror genre. This might be a daunting prospect if you’ve previously left your Halloween viewing in the care of American television — ABC Family, after all, offers little that we haven’t seen already.

Thankfully, world cinema is becoming increasingly accessible, and other countries have lately been turning out their own “Exorcist”- and “Paranormal Activity”-type motion pictures.

Below is a compilation of the foreign films made in the last five years that have managed to transcend cultural barriers to terrify audiences across the globe.

“The Orphanage” (2007): Not to be confused with “Orphan” — which I’m told is equally disturbing — “The Orphanage” is a Spanish-language, Guillermo del Toro-produced film with a deceptively familiar beginning: family and child move into an orphanage, child develops mysterious new “friend,” child disappears.

Soon, however, the story fractures into a frenzied and complicated narrative. Hidden antechambers are unearthed. Old women are hit by cars. Most memorably, there’s a catch at the end that manages to blow your mind without undermining the preceding scares. Like much of del Toro’s directorial work, “The Orphanage” is a cocktail of terror, imagination and poignancy that leaves an indelible impression.

“The Host” (2006): If you’ve read my column in the past, you’ll notice that I pay frequent lip service to Joon-ho Bong’s “The Host,” a South Korean monster film that brilliantly exceeds the sum of its parts.

The setup is straightforward: chemicals are being dumped into the Han River, awakening a mammoth fish-like beast that soon spirits away a family’s teenage daughter. The execution, however, is complex and masterful — “The Host”’s family is unforgettable, as are their increasingly elaborate rescue plots.

In equal parts horror film, tragedy and black comedy, “The Host” broke box-office records in South Korea not only because it featured a deftly imagined monster, but also because it drew on disparate genres in a way few B-movies had before.

“The Troll Hunter” (2010): First, a disclaimer: Seeing as it has no official U.S. release date, I haven’t seen this film — I can only endorse it based on the stellar reception it’s garnered at the Fantastic Fest film festival in Austin, Texas. With its rapidly mounting hype, however, it’s only a matter of time before it hits more States.

Not to be confused with the upcoming Guillermo del Toro project “Trollhunters,” this Norwegian “Cloverfield”-esque mockumentary follows a group of intrepid students into the black woods of Scandinavia, where they discover — surprisingly enough — giant, homicidal trolls who have the ability to “smell the blood” of Christians. The subtitled trailer is wonderfully hyperbolic, promising “a film so revealing that it changes your concept of society!” More likely, it’ll be a mockumentary so entertaining that it bolsters your opinion of Norwegian cinema.

“Let the Right One In” (2008): The first thing audiences will notice about Swedish vampire flick “Let the Right One In” is its impeccable cinematography — never has Scandinavia looked more bleak and austere. The second thing audiences will notice is its protagonist, a 12-year-old boy named Oskar who wanders about the courtyard of his apartment complex, absorbed in loneliness. That is, until he meets the girl next door, a friendly but mysterious kid who, unbeknownst to Oskar, massacres people and drinks their blood. The bond these two “children” form — a morbid play on preteen romance — retains a poignancy that “Twilight” can only hope to emulate.

You’ve probably heard of this film’s American adaptation, “Let Me In,” which looks to make Chloe Moretz’s preceding role as Hit-Girl in “Kick-Ass” seem fit for “Annie.” For a definitive horror film that doubles as a dark coming-of-age drama, however, the original is hard to beat.