Alexandra West is interviewed by Andrew Nayman about her new book, Films of the New French Extremity: Visceral Horror and National Identity. West puts films like Martyrs, Inside / L’Interieur , Frontier(s), Trouble Every Day and Twentynine Palms in the context of French history, politics and the history of the French film industry: “These movies use tropes to mask their insides, or they use horror as a Trojan horse for ideas. Blood and guts is like the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down.”