Japanese horror movies are a unique breed of spooky. Whether about vengeful ghosts or serial killers, these movies evoke a new kind of dread, one infused with existential fear about what it means to exist and the loneliness intrinsic to the human condition. It's a certain kind of nihilism that's frequently paired with the ridiculous, producing terror that subtly highlights the folly of existence itself.
1. One Missed Call
In the narrative, students get voicemails that foretell their own violent deaths. These predictions are swiftly fulfilled, albeit not without some dark humor and a frightening vintage ringtone Director Takashi Miike. mostly adheres to J-horror conventions.
2. Battle Royale
In a dystopian future, one high school class is rounded up annually and made to commit murder by the police. Shuya and Noriko, a couple of pupils, are the movie's main characters, although it occasionally switches to other kids' groups.
3. Jigoku
Shiro, a theology student who experiences a string of misfortunes, is the subject of Jigoku. Without giving anything away, Shiro has to cope with a twisted ensemble of characters that includes murder, sex, theft, death, suicide, carelessness, auto accidents, and dishonesty.
4. A Page Of Madness
Benshi, or narrators, supplied their own interpretation of silent-era Japanese films and provided language and exposition that described the plot. You are forced to piece together the story without narration or intertitles. You would anticipate a silent movie from somewhere other than the 1920s on this list. However, A Page of Madness successfully produces an experience that prioritizes visuals and cinematic technique over narrative.
5. Noroi: The Curse
The Curse begins immediately. Masafumi Kobayashi, a paranormal investigator, visits a tiny village to look into reports of weird noises in the area. While there, he discovers a mysterious network of disappearances, deaths, "ectoplasmic worms," psychic prodigies, and long-forgotten ancient rites.
6. Ju-On: The Grudge
The Grudge fueled the J-Horror craze in the early 2000s. Ju-On: The Grudge, published in 2002, was the third book in the series. Both the straight-to-video films Ju-On: The Curse and Ju-On: The Curse 2 attracted enough attention to inspire the creation of a third movie, distributed in cinemas. Ju-On: The ghosts of a mother and her son, who were murdered by their husband/father, are the central characters in The Grudge.
7. Dark Water
This is the first horror film that actually caused me to weep. In that it is similarly based on a Koji Suzuki story, was directed by Hideo Nakata, and has a single mother as its lead character, Dark Water is comparable to Ringu. However, this movie is far more focused on its main character's emotional and familial issues than Ringu's.
8. Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Tetsuo, the Iron Man, is the most terrible movie on this list. It's noisy, gory, sickening, intriguing, and loud. I initially had the same mindset as the protagonist's girlfriend: "nothing worries me." Both of us were mistaken. Tetsuo, the Iron Man, is not a game for the timid. Some of the most lifelike and unsettling visuals I've seen on film are produced using stop-motion effects.
9. House
In the 1970s, Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director, was a well-known advertising director in Japan. Following the success of Jaws, Toho contacted him and asked him to develop a similar project that would build on its popularity. He visited his elementary school kid instead of producing a scary shark flick.
10. Ringu
Ringu, a 1998 Japanese film, was based on a TV movie based on a Koji Suzuki novel. Five years later, it was recreated as The Ring for American audiences, which made way for more sequels. Two giggling high school girls studying at home are shown in Ringu's opening scene. A secret VHS video that, when viewed, sentences the viewer to death within a week is revealed to the other female and the audience.
