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[japanese-horrormovies90s00s]

Hello, my name is Jack, and I am a student currently doing research on Japanese horror films during the periods of the 1990’s and 2000’s. There will be a series of posts in lue of this topic and some accompanying a film related to these films. I have not decided yet on what horror movie to watch from this time period, so stay tuned to find out which one I report on! First we can go through an overview of what makes the horror films Japan published during the 1990’s and 2000’s prevalent. I will also have a link to the sources I used at the bottom of this post if others want to read the full article that I used. A quick summary of why the Japanese horror films took the main stage is directly tied to the boom of technology during this time period. These films heavily revolved around ghosts and spirits taking control of the technology around them and haunting the people who use them. From the article “Why We Need to Bring 2000s Japanese Horror Back” written by Arthur Goyaz, they bring up an interesting point of, “For the Japanese, a handful of worries came with the turn of the millennium, and these concerns were translated into chilling horror stories” (¶ 3). From the point of view of 2024, the fact that during the boom of new technologies Japan took the fears of what is to come and turned them into innovative horror films that garnered global attention is an interesting fact about these movies. 

The horror aspect of these films heavily revolved around ghosts and spirits and they come from folklore passed down through Japanese culture. Mainly we see angry and violent ghost/spirits inhabiting objects related to technology coming to haunt those in the present time. The main image you could think of when it comes to Japanese horror is the black-haired girl in a white dress(a photo will be attached). This image is accompanied by the film Ringu or the American remake The Ring. The director Hideo Nakata who directed Ringu is someone who is held in high regard for his horror movies. A quote from the article “Why Were the Early 2000s Such a Great Time for Asian Horror?” written by Samuel Williamson describes Hideo Nakata as,“...the king of this moment in Asian horror, not only with his incredible grasp on crafting scares in Ringu, but also with his 2002 classic, Dark Water”(¶ 7). It was not just Ringu that had so much global attention that spawned an American remake, but films like The Grudge, Dark Waters, One Missed Call, and The Uninvited all spawned American remakes. For this blog I will be focusing on watching the originals. I am leaning more towards either Ringu or Dark Water, so keep on the lookout for future posts.

Attached Articles:

Goyaz, A. (2023, August 8). Why we need to bring 2000s Japanese horror back. MovieWeb. https://movieweb.com/japanese-2000s-horror-should-return-why/ 

Williamson, S. (2023, September 30). Why were the early 2000s such a great time for Asian horror?. Collider. https://collider.com/asian-horror-early-2000s/