[Editorial] J-Horror Watchers Guide: 10 Films To Watch

Japanese horror, commonly known as J-Horror, doesn’t have the same presence in today’s media as much as it used to. It seemed to be everywhere in the late nineties/early 2000s, but now not so much. However, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth revisiting or that a few gems have not slipped through the cracks.

So here is a guide to the best of the best, along with a few extra recommendations for you to discover.

10. Ring (Ringu) 1998 dir. Hideo Nakata

I mean, it’s considered the classic for a reason. Even today, when a cursed VHS tape sounds about as ancient as the Necronomicon, this is a movie that still has impact as we follow a journalist trying to uncover the truth of her niece’s death. It has an atmosphere that soaks you in a well of dread, unforgettable scares, and an ending that is now horror history. It plays in the realm of urban legend so integral to much supernatural horror which is how stories like these grow and develop.

Yet as deadly as Sadako Yamamura (the woman at the centre of this mystery) is, there is also an element of sadness to her l. This is something that is essential in the very best ghost stories, inviting you to care and wonder if maybe the ‘wronged- in- life- ghost’ deserves their vengeance. The sequels vary in quality but are still enjoyable, but maybe skip the Sadako 3D movies which aren’t very successful at updating the curse for the digital age.

9. Ju-On The Grudge (Ju-On) 2002 dir. Takashi Shimizu

The other big hitter of J-Horror- there is something so bleak about Ju-On The Grudge, and that is meant as a compliment. Actually the third film of the series but the first to be released theatrically with the previous two films being V-Cinema (direct to video) releases, it concerns an average Japanese suburban house where something tragic occurred and everyone who enters is doomed. That’s it. There’s no hope to be had here, just inevitable terror. Its simplicity is its strength though, and whilst you know how each of the nonlinear vignettes is probably going to end, it's watching how they get there that is so satisfying and scary.

The principle of Ju-On is that when someone dies in a state of extreme anger and fear they come back as an Onryō, a vengeful ghost with the power to affect, harm, and in turn curse the living. Those killed by such a ghost can become an Onryō themselves, meaning that the curse is ever spreading, unstoppable. It’s a tragedy of the repeating nature of violence and misfortune, and one that is a great watch. The first sequel is a little uneven but has some great scares, and the V-Cinema films are worth hunting down as an interesting look at the beginnings of the series with very shoestring budgets. There were two spin offs, Black Ghost and White Ghost, which are okay but have little to do with the original film. The 2014 reboot and its sequel are too messy to bother with unless you are really in the mood for series completion. 

If you enjoy both Ring and Ju-On The Grudge and want a good laugh, Sadako vs Kayako isn’t an overly serious take on either characters, but it is hugely entertaining with lots of little touches for long-time fans.

8. Pulse (Kairo) 2001 dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Or as I like to call it, The Depression Apocalypse. The concept of ghosts coming through the internet is one that sounds immediately ridiculous, and yet Kurosawa creates a mood that is so thick and morose that it sticks to you long after you finish the film. Scary as they are, the ghosts are (in a way) the least of the characters’ problems. The film expresses how the connecting technology of the internet can also be very isolating and the way that loneliness can eat away at you.

This loneliness is heightened with some great cinematography and camera work that emphasises empty space through use of distance, very much at odds with the usual perception of bustling Japanese cities full of people. Even if technology has moved beyond dialup Pulse is still truly relevant, and after recent years it could be said to be an essential horror story.

7. Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) 200 dir. Kinji Fukasaka

Maybe not everyone would consider this a horror, but it came out during that late 90s/early 2000’s J-horror boom so for me is forever associated with that time. In a near future fascist Japan a group of schoolkids are brought to an island and told that as an example to the public they have to kill each other until only one remains alive. But what sets Battle Royale apart from the likes of The Hunger Games which would come later is that these are average school kids who know each other and therefore have to face the possibility of killing their friends.

Likewise, all those moments of teenage squabbles, resentments and bullying suddenly become reasonable cause for murder, and oh boy do they really go for it in the murders. Tying it all together is a brilliant performance from “Beat” Takeshi Kitano as the chosen classes’ teacher. It is bizarre, gory, and it’s the purest kind of cult entertainment out there.

6. Noroi: The Curse (Noroi) 2005 dir. Kōji Shiraishi

I am a sucker for found footage and a horror faux documentary, and this is such a strange and unnerving film it deserves to be up there with the best of the subgenre. Noroi is presented as the incomplete documentary of a paranormal investigator who has disappeared, and throughout the film remains very grounded in the documentary style which just makes what happens creepier and more realistic (well maybe not the crazy guy with the tinfoil hat).

This isn’t a movie that relies on jump scares, instead letting you stew in moments that feel not quite right but you’re not entirely sure why. We follow the investigator looking into various supernatural phenomena; a young psychic girl, a tv actress who exhibits odd behaviour in her sleep, and a mysterious mother and son, which begin to become more connected, not to mention disturbing, all leading to rituals relating to a mysterious entity called Kagutaba. It is a slow burn of a film, and a long one at that, but it’s a very rewarding watch as the scares have tremendous impact and there are certain images that stick in your mind afterwards.

5. Dark Water (Honogurai Mizu no soko kara) 2002 dir. Hideo Nakata

Another film from Ring’s Hideo Nakata and like Ring based on work by author Koji Suzuki, in many ways this is Nakata’s refinement of his horror skills. Whilst Ring remains the classic, Dark Water deserves to be held up in its own right for its eerie tale of a mother and daughter tormented in a dilapidated block of flats. Water is obviously the prevailing element here and is something which has massive significance in Shinto, both as purification and as conduit for spirits to move between worlds (see also Sadako and her well).

Watching the movie has an appropriately damp feel, and blocks of flats work so well in stories like this with multiple lives in such close proximity but distinctly separate with unknown traumas and horrors. Yet there is also a very human story at the heart of it dealing with the effects of parental abandonment, and of a mother and daughter desperate to stay together and live their lives.

4. House (Hausu) 1977 dir. Nobuhiko Ōbayashi

How to even begin to describe this? After the success of Jaws, Toho film studio approached Ōbayashi to make something similar, because who better to make a populist hit than an experimental short film director? He in turn asked his preteen daughter for ideas, and the result is attacking futons, dancing skeletons, a piano that eats people, and a group of girls with bizarre monikers like Mac, Kung Fu, and Gorgeous. It’s a truly bewildering and madcap experience, highlighted by creative cartoonish special effects (it’s crazy to think this came out the same year as Star Wars), set design that manages to mix several styles at once, some great if outlandish horror moments, and a soundtrack that varies between piano motifs and jaunty pop.

Yet underneath all these shenanigans Ōbayashi invokes the tragedy of the Atomic Bombings in WW2, something very personal to him as he lived in Hiroshima, at the heart of the titular house’s pain. The end result is something very obscure but also oddly sincere. It may not be the kind of Jaws-like blockbuster that Toho wanted, but it is a truly one-of-a-kind film.

3. Audition (Ōdishon) 1999 Takashi Miike

And you thought that your dating life sucked. Widower Aoyama seeks a new wife on the suggestion of his teen son. A friend of his in the film business suggests holding a mock audition to meet a suitable wife, where he meets the seemingly perfect Asami. What follows is a building mystery alongside the growing relationship, and even if you know where it’s all going to end up that doesn’t make it any easier to see what happens. Is the film a feminist tale of a woman’s revenge against a society that objectifies and commodifies her? Does Aoyama deserve his fate for participating in a gross casting couch scheme? Or is it a cautionary tale of “bitches be crazy” with Aoyama in the role of victim? Or is it something in between? In many ways the ambiguity is what makes Audition as fascinating as it is disturbing. Miike’s filmography is wide and varied, encompassing drama, crime, and even video game adaptations.

For a more straight-forward J-horror offering from him, One Missed Call is a decent, if not extraordinary, ghost story. Or for something a little more out there, Yakuza Apocalypse has vampires, gangsters, and a giant frog man, what more could you want?

2. Reincarnation (Rinne) 2005 dir. Takashi Shimizu

This is a curious film, as it is directed by Ju-On’s Takeshi Shimizu but after he made the American remake The Grudge, so in a way he is returning to his roots here the experience he gained from making a movie more in the Western movie system. It appropriately has a film-making theme to it; as a horror movie based on a hotel massacre is being made, strange events begin to happen that suggest that those involved in the film, particularly its main actress, might have a connection to the carnage. It’s fairly obvious from the title what the root of that connection is, but the way it unfolds along with the horror movie in a horror movie set up is what makes it interesting.

The hotel itself is visually modern but with an abandoned spooky edge that makes it a great location. One element that is particularly horrifying is that in the hotel massacre the perpetrator filmed it as he went around slaughtering people, and we get to see bits of this. There’s also a creepy doll... who doesn’t love a creepy doll?

1. Kwaidan (Kaidan) 1965 dir. Masaki Kobayashi

This is a classic epic of not only Japanese horror, but Japanese film as a whole. At 182 minutes it is a daunting watch, but a rewarding one that takes you through four classic tales of Japanese folklore which is at the root of so much of the J-Horror subgenre. These stories are adapted from the work of Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-Irish writer who collected and preserved many of the classic ghost stories of the Edo Period, some of which had never been written down before.

There’s a theatrical quality to the film with bold sets and colours which jump out of the screen at you, which is appropriate as many ghost stories like these would have been performed in Kabuki or Noh theatre. It’s an interesting experience, especially when you look at it next to the more recent films. If you like this, I would recommend following it with other historical ghost stories Onibaba and Kuroneko.

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