Japan's Scariest Horror Movies

According to this survey (in Japanese) conducted by Oricon Research, the Japanese horror film or film series that is regarded as the scariest of all time by the Japanese people themselves is the Ringu series. This is followed by the One Missed Call series and the Ju-on series.

The Top 10 scariest Japanese movies based on the survey are:

1. Ringu Series (Rasen/Ringu/Ringu 2/Ringu 0)

2. One Missed Call Series (One Missed Call / One Missed Call 2)

3. Ju-on (The Grudge) Series (Ju-On 1 / Ju-On 2)

4. Dark Water

5. Scary True Stories: Ten Haunting Tales from the Japanese Underground Series

6. Gakko no Kaidan 学校の怪談 (Haunted School) series (Gakko no Kaidan 1 / 2 / 3 / 4)

7. Kansen (Infection)

8. Shikoku

9. Junji Inagawa (稲川淳二) series

10. Kuroi Ie (The Black House)

Actually, from this list, the popularity of horror films is clearly shown by the number of films that have been made into "series" with each series comprising of a few successful and not so successful sequels. In the above list, I think only Dark Water, Kansen, Shikoku and Kuroi Ie do not have sequels (yet).

I have not seen all the films in this list but to me, the scariest Japanese horror film is still the first Ringu movie, it not only set the standard for subsequent movies like Dark Water, One Missed Call and Ju-on, it also revived the Asian horror film genre and set the stage for Korean, Hong Kong and Thai horror movies to capture a big piece of the box-office pie in Asia and beyond.

Tags: Japanese horror movie, Japanese horror film, Ringu, The Ring, One Missed Call, Ju-on, The Grudge, Dark Water, Scary True Stories: Ten Haunting Tales from the Japanese Underground, Gakko no Kaidan, Gakkou no Kwaidan, Haunted School, Kansen, Shikoku, Junji Inagawa, The Black House, Kuroi Ie, Top 10 Horror Movies.

My Thoughts On Made-In-Japan Horror Movies

The release of The Grudge 2 recently made me realise what an impact Japanese horror movies have made on the horror movie genre this last decade or so.

When Ringu was released in 1998, the horror movie industry was facing a slump. Many of the best films in this genre like The Exorcist, The Shining and Salem's Lot were made in the 60s to 80s. In the 90s, scary movies were either slasher flicks or comedy cum horror type films. Although some of these movies were pretty shocking and could still generate a good fright, they lacked the dark, foreboding and dread inducing "I could hardly breathe" atmosphere that were so prevalent in the older horror movies. Instead, many predicted that the ability to make such terrifying horror movies were a thing of the past.

But when The Ring exploded on the big screen in and rung up the box-office cash registers in 1998, everyone started to look at this genre with new interest... and started to incorporate many of the elements that made the movie so successful in their own movies. I am sure you recognise the long-haired, white-gowned female otherworldly being with the creepy and jerky body movements in many recent horror movies. She has made many cameo appearances in slightly different guises in films like The Sixth Sense, South Korea's Wishing Stairs, Singapore's The Eye and of course Japan's own Ju-on and Dark Water.

Actually I feel that the Japanese approach to horror movies is very different from Hollywood. There is usually very little special effects if you compare it with horror films from Hollywood but there is always a sense that something mysterious and terrifying is lurking beneath the surface. The atmosphere is almost always very still and quiet, with a minimum of dialogue which makes the horror, when it comes, even more shocking and unexpected.

When I first watched The Ring at the cinema, I had such a shock from the infamous TV scene that I left the cinema shivering with fright. And I was actually worried that something will happen to me on the seventh day :-P Some people even shifted their TV sets out of their bedroom after watching the film... haha...

However, with more and more directors churning out Ringu style horror movies like a production line, I feel that the quality of horror movies these days have really fallen tremendously. For me, even Hollywood remakes of movies like The Ring and Ju-on really cannot compare to the original versions. I guess movie goers are tired of seeing the same techniques being used again and again... Could a horror movie slump be on the horizon again?

Technorati tags: horror movie, scary movie, Japanese movie, Japanese film, The Ring, Ringu, Ju-on, The Grudge, The Grudge 2.