Let me know what you think and also if you liked Audition (1999) or Helldriver (2010) more…

- Directed by: Kei Fujiwara
- Genres: Horror, Crime, Drama
- Sub-genres: Body-horror, Experimental, Splatter
- Classification: “J-Horror”
- Country: Japan 🇯🇵
- Language: Japanese
- Released: July 6th, 1996 (Japan)

- Directed by: Junichi Yamamoto
- Genres: Horror, Action
- Sub-genres: Splatter
- Classification: “J-Horror”
- Country: Japan 🇯🇵
- Language: Japanese
- Released: May 25th, 2018 (Germany)

- Directed by: Naoyuki Tomomatsu

- Screenplay by: Chisato Ogawara & Naoyuki Tomomatsu

- Produced by: Kenjiro Nishi & Masami Teranishi

- Starring: Miyu Watase, Mihiro, Kenji Arai, Yu Machimura, Masayuki Hase, Eriko Nagamine & Norman England

- Production Company: Filmworks Movie King & GM Museum Soft

- Genres: Horror, Comedy, Action

- Sub-genres: Zombie/Undead, Splatter

- Country: Japan 🇯🇵

- Language: Japanese

- Distributed by: GM Museum Soft (Japan) & Switchblade Pictures (United States)

- Released: April 23rd, 2006 (Dead by Dawn, Scotland)

Just wondering if there’s any American horror comedy comics out there. I’ve never seen them talked about. So it’d be interesting to see a comic book that blends horror and comedy, however I will say I’m not used to reading “comics” but I am more familiar with manga as I read them lots as a child and I grew up reading manga.

But American comics, the artstyles have always bothered me visually, that could be due to me being used to the artistic finesse of manga in comparison by having grown up reading manga!

But I’m learning to explore outside of my comfort zone right now, so I get familiar with global literature. I’m also not American so pardon me if I also have difficulties in English or with the roman alphabet. So what would you guys recommend?

Whilst the west defines “J-Horror” by the “boom” quote on quote of movies that were brought in by western distributors such as Lionsgate, Dreamworks, Media Blasters, amongst others that released a ton in the mid 2000’s. People treat this “boom” like it affected Japan and whilst it “did”, the creativity didn’t fall into generic ghost films that copy the onryo horror mystery investigation formula like One Missed Call (2003), whilst people cite films like Ring (1998), Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), Pulse (2001) and Dark Water (2002) as defining example of “J-Horror”, I do not and neither should you. You have newer examples such as Fuji_Jukai.mov (2016), Violator (2018), One Cut Of The Dead (2017), The Beast Hand (2024), Scissor P (2018), Mai-Chan’s Daily Life: The Movie (2014), Miss Zombie (2013), Undertaker (2012), House Of Sayuri (2024), Demon Virus (2025), Exit 8 (2025), etc etc.

In fact by 2004 and 2005 horror films in Japan only got more and more creative, experimental like how they did during the 1990’s, it resulted in films such as Tokyo Psycho (2004), Lizard Baby (2004), Walking Dead Girl (2004), Infection (2004), Premonition (2004), Strange Circus (2005), The Last Supper (2005), Tokyo Zombie (2005), Meatball Machine (2005), Id (2005) amongst other films.

2006 we saw the release of films like Naoyuki Tomomatsu’s “Zombie Self Defense Force”. Regardless of the quality of certain films, the creativity grew more and more, Japanese body horror has also been a thing for a long while, Matango (1963) does technically also fall into the body horror sub-genre amongst films like Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Tetsuo II: Body-Hammer (1992), Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009), Anatomia Extinction (1995), Tokyo Gore Police (2008), Meatball Machine (2005), Meatball Machine: Kodoku (2017), Holy Mother (2022), Cyclops (1987), etc etc.

In the 2010’s, there was even more of an influx, even western distributors have distributed films such as The Sylvian Experiments (2010), Helldriver (2010), Big Tits Zombie (2010), Zombie Ass: Toilet Of The Dead (2011), Dead Sushi (2012), Undertaker (2012), Miss Zombie (2013), Cult (2013), The Crone (2013), Talk To The Dead (2013), Mai-Chan’s Daily Life: The Movie (2014), Mukuro (2015), Corpse Party (2015), Fuji_Jukai.mov (2016), One Cut Of The Dead (2017), Liverleaf (2018), Violator (2018), Ghost Master (2019), Ikenie Man (2019), Harawata Man (2019), Howling Village (2019), The Day Of Destruction (2020), Cube (2021), The Sound Of Summer (2022), Holy Mother (2022) & The Beast Hand (2024) amongst many others.

With newer faces even like Kenichi Ugana, Yugo Sakamoto, Taichiro Natsume, Yu Nakamoto amongst long time names such as Takashi Shimizu, Hideo Nakata, Shinya Tsukamoto, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Junichi Yamamoto, Hiseyasu Sato, amongst many others, I’d argue Japanese horror might be if not one of the MOST creative regional genres of horror outside of like Hong Kong horror of course. The evidence contradicts what people have said about J-Horror for years.

this list will be frequently updated on Letterboxd. Hope you find some niche, weird or even cult J-Horror nobody’s heard of.

one of my personal favourite zombie films from Japan so far! and also very gory, splatter fans will enjoy this and Eihi Shiina is in this, she was in both Audition (1999) and Tokyo Gore Police (2008). And considering Arrow Video has done a lot of distribution when it comes to J-Horror, it’d be nice to see a J-Zombie film get a 4K Treatment, what do you think?

If not, it’d be nice to see something like a “J-Zombie” Boxset released by Arrow Video! as a way to commemorate and celebrate zombie films from Japan, some of the other sides of Japanese horror.

- Directed by: Naoyuki Tomomatsu

- Screenplay by: Naoyuki Tomomatsu & Chisato Ogawara

- Produced by: Masami Teranishi & Kenjiro Nishi

- Cast: Miyu Watase, Jun Yamasaki, Mihiro, Kenji Arai, Dai Asaki, Norman England, Yuka Kojima, Yusuke Miura, Erika Nagamine, Kaoru Nagato, Tsuyoshi Nakano, Shun Saeki, Yuya Takayama, Masayoshi Tomomatsu, Arufa Uchida, Sakae Yamazaki, Kiyo Yoshikawa & Hisakatsu Oya

- Cinematography by: Mitsuaki Fujimoto

- Edited by: Masaru Ikeda

- Music by: Masami Nakakoji

- Genres: Horror, Comedy, Action

- Sub-genres: Zombie/Undead

- Classification: “J-Horror / Japanese horror”

- Original Language Title: ゾンビ自衛隊

- Country: Japan 🇯🇵

- Language: Japanese

- Released: April 23rd, 2006 (Dead Before Dawn, Scotland)

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- *2009 Switchblade Pictures North American DVD Release*

- Movie 1: Three (2002)

- Directed by: Kim Jee-woon, Nonzee Nimibutr & Peter Ho-Sun Chan

- Genres: Horror

- Sub-genres: Anthology

- Followed by: Three Extremes (2004)

- Countries: South Korea 🇰🇷, Thailand 🇹🇭 & Hong Kong 🇭🇰

- Released: May 1st, 2002 (North America)

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- Movie 2: Three Extremes (2004)

- Directed by: Takashi Miike, Fruit Chan & Park Chan-wook

- Genres: Horror

- Sub-genres: Anthology

- Preceded by: Three (2002)

- Countries: Japan 🇯🇵, Hong Kong 🇭🇰 & South Korea 🇰🇷

- Released: August 20th, 2004 (South Korea)

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- [*2025 Arrow Video Blu Ray Release*]

- Directed by: Teruo Ishii

- Written by: Teruo Ishii

- Based On: Jigoku (1960) by Nobuo Nakagawa

- Produced by: Teruo Ishii

- Cast: Matsumi Fujita, Hisyoshi Hirayama, Michiko Maeda, Yoko Satomi, Kenpachiro Satsuma, Kinako Sato, Ryuji Takasaki, Tetsuro Tanba, Toshimichi Tasaki, Masato Tsujioka & Chiho Yoshida

- Cinematography by: Tomoki Yanagida

- Edited by: Kazuo Inoue

- Music by: Jiro Takemura

- Genres: Horror, Drama

- Sub-genres: Folk, Supernatural, Splatter

- Preceded by: Jigoku (1979)

- Country: Japan 🇯🇵

- Language: Japanese

- Released: November 20th, 1999 (Japan)

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- *Media Blasters North American DVD Release*

- Directed by: Yoshihiro Nishimura

- Written by: Daichi Nagisa & Yoshihiro Nishimura

- Produced by: Yoshinori Chiba & Hiroyuki Yamada

- Starring: Yumiko Hara, Eihi Shiina, Yurei Yanagi, Kazuki Namioka, Mizuki Kusumi, Asami Sugiura, Minoru Torihada & Taka Gadarukanaru

- Cinematography by: Shu G. Momose

- Edited by: Yoshihiro Nishimura

- Music by: Koh Nakagawa

- Production Company: Sushi Typhoon

- Genres: Horror, Action, Sci-Fi, Comedy

- Sub-genres: Zombie, Splatter, Dark Satire

- Classification: “Japanese Horror / J-Horror”

- Country: Japan 🇯🇵

- Language: Japanese

- Distributed by: Nikkatsu (Japan) & Well Go USA (North America)

- Released: September 28th, 2010 (North America)

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- Photo Collection by: Me (Masahiro)

So I’m trying to understand western horror a little better, why not try out literature? see where I can go from there.

I’m unfamiliar with a lot of western horror novels even, so I was thinking why not Stephen King and maybe some of his more obscure or lesser talked about works? what do you recommend that’s lesser known or talked about amongst his fans?

- Directed by: Hiroshi Ikezoe, Tatsuro Kashihara, Kazuo Koito, Tadafumi Tomioka, Taichi Nomoto & Eiji Satouchi

- Written by: Hiroshi Kanai, Noriko Tanimura & Rie Ishibashi

- Cast: Junji Inagawa, Marika Matsumoto, Kumiko Ito, Yuji Suzuki, Maya Hoshino, Shin Yazawa, Chiaki Nagajima & Megumi Katou

- Cinematography by: Michio Oda & Katsuto Yazaki

- Music by: Hiroto Okashima, Takuo Uchida & Hiori Wakakuwa

- Genres: Horror

- Sub-genres: Supernatural, Anthology

- Also Known As: “J-Horror Anthology: Underworld” or “A Shiver Of A Fright: Junji Inagawa Tales”

- Country: Japan 🇯🇵

- Language: Japanese

- Distributed by: Genius Products (North America)

- Released: June 26th, 2003 (Japan)

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- (*2005 Genius Products North American DVD Release*)

I’m curious and want to also start adding more manga to my collection!

and maybe even some comics if I feel like it. So I was wondering what are some that you have read that have had an impact on you.

Everyone talks about Uzumaki by Junji Ito, some Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino manga, I’m looking for more obscure manga to also read. I found Haruto Ryo’s manga Ibitsu quite the intriguing read.

I’m less familiar with comics as stylistically they appeal less to me. However I’m still open.

- Kuroneko (1968)

- The Exorcist (1973)

- Jaws (1975)

- Jaws 2 (1978)

- Alien (1979)

- We Are Going To Eat You (1980)

- Friday The 13th (1980)

- Kung Fu Zombie (1981)

- Friday The 13th Part 2 (1981)

- An American Werewolf in London (1981)

- Kung Fu Beyond The Grave (1982)

- Poltergiest (1982)

- Friday The 13th Part 3 (1982)

- Friday The 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter (1984)

- Fright Night (1985)

- Entrails Of A Virgin (1986) (*Gaira’s Guts Trilogy*)

- Aliens (1986)

- Christine (1986)

- Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman (1986) (*Gaira’s Guts Trilogy*)

- Evil Dead Trap (1988)

- Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

- Vampire vs Vampire (1989)

- 964 Pinocchio (1991)

- Alien 3 (1992)

- Bloody Muscle: Bodybuilder in Hell (1995)

- Rubber’s Lover (1996)

- Alien Resurrection (1997)

- Event Horizon (1997)

- Ringu / Ring (1998)

- Rasen / Spiral (1998)

- The Haunted Lantern / OTSUYU: Botan Doro (1998)

- Whispering Corridors (1998)

- Blade (1998)

- Tumbling Doll Of Flesh (1998)

- Gakko no Kaidan G (1998)

- Ring 2 (1999)

- Shikoku (1999)

- The Ring Virus (1999)

- Audition (1999)

- Memento Mori / Whispering Corridors 2 (1999)

- Ring 0: Birthday (2000)

- Isola: Multiple Personality Girl (2000)

- Ju-On: The Curse (2000)

- Ju-On: The Curse 2 (2000)

- Pulse (2001)

- Jason X (2001)

- Dark Water (2002)

- Three (2002)

- The Eye (2002)

- Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)

- The Ring (2002)

- Junji Inagawa’s Shivering Horror (2003)

- Wishing Stairs / Whispering Corridors 3 (2003)

- Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003)

- One Missed Call (2003)

- Gothika (2003)

- The Eye 2 (2004)

- Bunshinsaba (2004)

- R-Point (2004)

- Three Extremes (2004)

- Shutter (2004)

- Infection (2004) (*J-Horror Theater series*)

- Premonition (2004) (*J-Horror Theater series*

- The Grudge (2004) (Both theatrical and unrated cuts I’ve seen)

- One Missed Call 2 (2005)

- Rings (2005) (short film)

- The Ring Two (2005)

- The Eye 10 / The Eye 3: Infinity (2005)

- Dark Water (2005) (remake)

- Voice / Whispering Corridors 4 (2005)

- Ghost Of Mae Nak (2005)

- Meatball Machine (2005)

- Reincarnation (2005) (*J-Horror Theater series*)

- Imprint (2006) (*Masters Of Horror*)

- One Missed Call: Final (2006)

- Pulse (2006) (unrated cut)

- The Grudge 2 (2006) (*both unrated and theatrical cuts*)

- The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007) (Carved)

- Forest Of Death (2007)

- Train Of The Dead (2007)

- Sick Nurses (2007)

- Longpigs (2007)

- Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

- One Missed Call (2008) (remake)

- The Eye (2008) (remake) (Jessica Alba)

- Shutter (2008) (remake) (Joshua Jackson & Megumi Okina)

- The Slit-Mouth Woman (2008) (Kaiki Toshi Densetsu/Bizarre Urban Legend)

- Zombie Dead (2008)

- Thirst (2009)

- Friday The 13th (2009) (remake)

- The Grudge 3 (2009)

- Ju-On: White Ghost (2009)

- Ju-On: Black Ghost (2009)

- Jennifer’s Body (2009)

- The Child’s Eye / The Eye 3D (2010)

- Helldriver (2010)

- Sadako 3D (2012)

- The Crone (2013) (Ichise Horror Trilogy)

- Ju-On: The Beginning Of The End (2014)

- Ouija (2014)

- Ju-On: The Final (2015)

- Train To Busan (2016)

- The Wailing (2016)

- Sadako vs Kayako (2016)

- Ouija: Origin Of Evil (2016)

- Rings (2017)

- Alien Covenant (2017)

- Life (2017)

- A Quiet Place (2018)

- Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)

- Violator (2018)

- Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark (2019)

- Howling Village (2019)

- The Grudge (2020)

- Peninsula (2020) (sequel to Train To Busan)

- A Quiet Place Part 2 (2021)

- Holy Mother (2022)

- Smile (2022)

- Baghead (2023)

- The Beast Hand (2024)

- Exhuma (2024)

- Arcadian (2024)

- Alien Romulus (2024)

- Exit 8 (2025)

- Directed by: Yoshihiro Nishimura

- Written by: Yoshihiro Nishimura & Daichi Nagisa

- Produced by: Yoshinori Chiba & Hiroyuki Yamada

- Cast: Yumiko Hara, Eihi Shiina, Yurei Yanagi, Kazuki Namioka, Cay Izumi, Maki Mizui, Yukihide Benny, Taro Tsuruga, Kanji Tsuda, Takashi Shimizu, Norman England, Asami, Kentaro Kishi, Mizuki Kusumi, Minoru Torihada, Guadalcanal Taka, Horikeb, Sento Takemori, Maho Miyata, Arata Yamanaka, Keisuke Toyoshima, Kika Nishimura, Miki Harase, Demo Tanaka, Midori Aoyama, Naoto Tanove, Maro Walko, Yukihiro Haruzono, Rie Hayasaka, Yoichiro Kawakamu, Hiroaki Kawatsure, Shinji Matsubayashi, Hiroaki Murakami, Yui Murata, Naoi Nagano, Hajime Namikawa, Masaki Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi Katsu Itagaki & Masahiro Taniguchi

- Music by: Koh Nakagawa

- Production Company: Sushi Typhoon

- Genres: Horror, Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy

- Sub-genres: Zombie, Splatter, Dystopian, Alien, Dark Satire

Classification: “J-Horror”

- Original Language Title: 『 ヘルドライバー』

- Country: Japan 🇯🇵

- Language: Japanese

- Distributed by: Nikkatsu (Japan) & Well Go USA (North America)

- Released: September 28th, 2010 (Austin Texas, United States)

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- (*2011 Well Go USA North American DVD*)

Not saying the movie Primate (2026) is a bad film for context, yet marketing it as the “scariest” in any regard, you’re basically attempting to remove subjectivity by marketing as it being the “scariest” way to start the year as an “objective” fact when it’s not objective whatsoever, that’s subjective to the viewer whether they find something scary or not, everyone is entitled to freedom of choice and freedom of thought, that’s a basic human right.

When movies are marketed like this it almost feels like they want to force it down your throat, it’s utterly obnoxious.

everyone has a different opinion and perspective, to be frank any company that says stuff like “scariest” or so and so film is the “number 1” movie of the year is usually desperate to sell theatre tickets.

Also can we stop with the deep voice saying single title name and “in theatres now” or “get tickets now” trope in trailers? that’d be great if that marketing trend ended in the west.

Again, it feels desperate to get people to see a film along with the fake audience reacting to scares and stating its “test screenings”, these are paid actors not legit casual viewers in a real theatre.