Japanese horror

Japanese horror, also known as J-horror, is Japanese horror fiction in popular culture, noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre in light of Western treatments. Japanese horror tends to focus on psychological horror, tension building (suspense), and supernatural horror, particularly involving ghosts (yūrei) and poltergeists, while many contain themes of folk religion such as: possession, exorcism, shamanism, precognition, and yōkai.

Origins

See also: Japanese folklore

The origins of Japanese horror can be traced to horror and ghost story classics of the Edo period and the Meiji period, which were known as kaidan. Elements of several of these popular folktales have been worked into the stories of modern films, especially in the traditional nature of the Japanese ghost.

Ghost stories have an even older history in Japanese literature, dating back to at least the Heian period (794–1185). Konjaku Monogatarishū written during that time featured a number of ghost stories from India, China and Japan. Kabuki and noh, forms of traditional Japanese theater, often depict horror tales of revenge and ghastly appearances, many of which have been used as source material for films.

Film

Notable films

• Audition
• Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Kuchisake-onna)
• Carved 2: The Scissors Massacre (Kuchisake-onna 2)
• Cure
• Cursed
• Dark Water (Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara)
• Eko Eko Azarak series
• Exte (Ekusute)
• Forbidden Siren
• Gakkō no Kaidan series
• Gemini (Sōseiji)
• Guinea Pig series
• The Happiness of the Katakuris
• House (Hausu)
• Infection (Kansen)
• The Inugami Family (Inugami-ke no Ichizoku)
• The Inugamis (Inugami-ke no ichizoku)
• J-Horror Theater series
  • Infection (Kansen)
  • Premonition (Yogen)
  • Reincarnation (Rinne)
  • Retribution (Sakebi)
  • Kaidan (Kaidan)
  • The Sylvian Experiments (Kyōfu)
• Ju-on series
• Ju-Rei: The Uncanny
• Kakashi
• Kuroneko
• Kwaidan
• Marebito
• Naked Blood
• Nightmare Detective (Akumu Tantei)
• Nightmare Detective 2 (Akumu Tantei2)
• Noroi: The Curse
• One Cut of the Dead
• One Missed Call (Chakushin ari) series
• Onibaba
• Over Your Dead Body (Kuime)
• Parasite Eve
• Premonition (Yogen)
• Pulse (Kairo)
• Pyrokinesis
• Reincarnation (Rinne)
• Ring (Ringu) series
• Shikoku
• Strange Circus (Kimyô na sâkasu)
• Suicide Club (Jisatsu Sākuru)
• Sweet Home
• Tag (Real Onigokko or Riaru Onigokko)
• Tales From The Dead
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man
• Tomie series
• Unholy Women
• Uzumaki (Spiral)
• Versus
• Zigeunerweisen (Tsigoineruwaizen)
• Zoo

Notable directors

• Masaki Kobayashi
• Kiyoshi Kurosawa
• Takashi Miike
• Nobuo Nakagawa
• Hideo Nakata
• Ataru Oikawa
• Takashi Shimizu
• Kaneto Shindo
• Kōji Shiraishi
• Sion Sono
• Shinya Tsukamoto
• Norio Tsuruta

Anime and manga

See also: Category:Horror anime and manga

Certain popular Japanese horror films are based on manga, including Tomie, Uzumaki, and Yogen.

Video games

Further information: Survival horror

• Ao Oni
• Calling
• Castlevania
• Clock Tower
• Corpse Party
• D
• Deadly Premonition
• Dino Crisis
• Fatal Frame
• Ghost House
• Monster Bash
• Ib
• Ju-on: The Grudge
• Kenseiden
• Kuon
• Laplace no Ma
• Night of Sacrifice
• Overblood
• Parasite Eve
• Resident Evil
• Silent Hill
• Siren
• Splatterhouse
• Sweet Home
• The House of the Dead
• The Witch's House

Influence

File:Talesfromthedead chalk.jpg

Hidetoshi Imura as Seijun from Tales from the Dead.

Since the early 2000s, several of the more popular Japanese horror films have been remade. Ring (1998) was one of the first to be remade in America as The Ring, and later The Ring Two (although this sequel bears almost no similarity to the original Japanese sequel). Other notable examples include The Grudge (2004), Dark Water (2005), and One Missed Call (2008)

With the exception of The Ring, most American remakes of Japanese horror films have received negative reviews (although The Grudge received mixed reviews). One Missed Call has received the worst reception of all, having earned the Moldy Tomato Award at Rotten Tomatoes for garnering a 0% critical approval rating. The Grudge 4 was announced in 2011, but no news has surfaced since. Similarly, The Ring 3D was reportedly green-lit by Paramount in 2010, and it was reported in 2016 that the film would be renamed Rings and released in early 2017.

Many of the original directors who created these Asian horror films have gone on to direct the American remakes. For example, Hideo Nakata, director of Ring, directed the remake The Ring Two; and Takashi Shimizu, director of the original Ju-on, directed the remake The Grudge as well as its sequel, The Grudge 2.

Several other Asian countries have also remade Japanese horror films. For example, South Korea created their own version of the Japanese horror classic Ring, titled The Ring Virus.

In 2007, Los Angeles-based writer-director Jason Cuadrado released the film Tales from the Dead, a horror film in four parts that Cuadrado filmed in the United States with a cast of Japanese actors speaking their native language.

Zombie fiction

Further information: Zombie

In addition to psychological J-horror, there are also numerous Japanese works of zombie fiction. One of the earliest Japanese zombie films with considerable gore and violence was Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay (1991). The release of two 1996 Japanese zombie games, Capcom's Resident Evil and Sega's The House of the Dead, sparked an international craze for zombie games. In addition to featuring George Romero's classic slow zombies, The House of the Dead also introduced a new type of zombie: the fast running zombie.

According to Kim Newman in the book Nightmare Movies (2011), the "zombie revival began in the Far East" during the late 1990s, largely inspired by two Japanese zombie games released in 1996: Resident Evil, which started the Resident Evil video game series, and Sega's arcade shooter House of the Dead. The success of these two 1996 zombie games inspired a wave of Asian zombie films, such as the zombie comedy Bio Zombie (1998) and action film Versus (2000). The zombie films released after Resident Evil were influenced by zombie video games, which inspired them to dwell more on the action compared to older George Romero films.

The zombie revival which began in the Far East eventually went global following the worldwide success of the Japanese zombie games Resident Evil and The House of the Dead. They sparked a revival of the zombie genre in popular culture, leading to a renewed global interest in zombie films during the early 2000s. In addition to being adapted into the Resident Evil and House of the Dead films from 2002 onwards, the original video games themselves also inspired zombie films such as 28 Days Later (2002) and Shaun of the Dead (2004), leading to the revival of zombie films during the 2000s. In 2013, George Romero said it was the video games Resident Evil and House of the Dead "more than anything else" that popularised his zombie concept in early 21st century popular culture. The fast running zombies introduced in The House of the Dead games also began appearing in zombie films during the 2000s, including the Resident Evil and House of the Dead films, 28 Days Later, and the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake.

The low-budget Japanese zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead (2017) became a sleeper hit in Japan, and it made box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget. One Cut of the Dead also received worldwide acclaim, with Rotten Tomatoes stating it "reanimates the moribund zombie genre with a refreshing blend of formal daring and clever satire."

See also

• Arima neko
• Horror film
• J-Horror Theater

Further reading

• da Silva, Joaquín. "J-Horror and Toshi Densetsu Revisited". EigaNove. {{cite web}}:
• See more Japanese horror films here Sleep With Your Lights On Because These Japanese Horror Movies Will Leave You Scared Shitless