Japanese horror directors always knew how to make your skin crawl; they are masters in this. Their movies are the scariest I’ve ever seen, although I’ve seen not that many, because sometimes it’s just too disturbing to watch. But the ones I’m going to talk about, were very interesting and scary at the same time, I even was scared of the dark for couple days after that.
One of my favorites is ‘Shutter’ (2004), about photographer, who starts noticing shadows in all of his pictures, which he can’t explain. Later he and his girlfriend start seeing ghost of the girl and soon after his two friends are killed. Although appearances of the ghost make you jump every time and you feel sorry for pour haunted couple, mystery is kept until the end, where everything comes to place and you start feeling sorry for the ghost not for the couple. Hollywood did remake ‘Shutter’ in 2008 directed by Japanese director, but written and distributed by Americans. Movie has exact same plot, even action is happening in Japan, but main characters are Americans and movie loses its spirit. It’s still interesting, but it’s not that scary anymore.
Second favorite I would say ‘One missed call’ (Chakushin Ari), made in 2003 and remake in US was released in 2008. It’s story about the girl, who gets creepy voicemails with her friends last words before dying. After few days her friends actually start dying one by one the same way she heard in the voicemails. Of course she tries to find out why it’s happening with help of the detective and in the end she finds the answers, which takes her back to her childhood. Movie is also full of jump scares, good acting, scary ghosts and many creepy deaths. US version is much softer, more appropriate for western audience.
Probably everyone heard about the famous ‘Grudge’ (Ju-On) (2002) with that creepy looking kid, who makes even creepier noises and the girl with long black hair killing everyone. There are few parts of ‘Grudge’, but first two is the creepiest, I swear, I was scared to sleep without light for few nights. US made remake with famous Sarah Michelle Geller, which was also huge success, but not that scary as original.
Few other movies, which I liked a lot is ‘Death Note’, ‘The Ring’ and ‘Dark Water’. ‘Death Note’ is about student, who finds note book and big scary animated angel of death comes with it. Note book has the power to kill people if the boy writes name of the person and how he will dye. ‘The Ring’ with weird content tape, which is possessed by scary looking ghost, again with long black hair, who kills people after 7 days past watching the tape. Another terrifying ghost story ‘Dark Water, which also like ‘The Ring’ has US remakes.
After watching all these movies, I would say Japan is the best in creating ghost stories. The directing, acting, make up, mysterious Japanese vibe, sound tracks, all that and more makes these movies special, which US remakes could never recreate.
DOSE OF FEAR 