by Laura Hageman

Created on: March 10, 2008

The Japanese managed to create some really great horror movies. They have made a name for themselves for their expertise in scaring the pants off their audiences worldwide. The Japanese seem to come up with so many scary horror films that the United States deem necessary in making its own version. Typically, the Japanese version remains better and more horrific. Not to say that some American versions of the Japanese original films are not good, but sometimes you feel as though they just did it for the money and not to make a great movie.

The best Japanese horror flick has got to be Ringu. This is one of the most creepiest stories ever told. Even the American version entitled the Ring was scary. We all know the story of the little girl who was killed by her mother and simply wanted everyone to know by watching a video tape. Yet, everyone who watched the tape died too. The idea of having the long black hair covering the girls face is so haunting that only a true genius could vision something so simple could scare people so badly. I just simply loved it.

Ju-on (the Grudge) is another Japanese masterpiece. Riding off the success of this film of course the United States made their own adding a bit more detail. Ju-on was extremely cold and chilling. It was a technically well-written story about a man who killed his wife and child. The woman kills anyone and everyone that come in the house to seek revenge of her death.

Audition is a 2001 horror movie based on a novel by Ryn Marakama. This is an eerie tale of a widowed man who is encouraged by his son to find another wife. He auditions several women but then finds a former ballerina to marry. She turns out to be completely different than what he thought she was and not in a good way. This movie is definitely one of the best of the horror films from Japan.

I recently caught a Japanese movie on cable entitled A Tale of Two Sisters. This film captured my attention immediately and I have to consider it one of the best I have seen. It is a ghost tale with a twisted plot. It tells a story of two sisters that suffer the loss of their mother. Upon returning from the hospital recovering from a mental illness the two girls are discouraged to see their father with a new found love (a nurse from the hospital). This movie has so many twists and turns and disturbing scenes that I couldn't keep my eyes off it. It is very slow, but you cannot wait to find out what is going to happen next. I highly recommend A Tale of Two Sisters to anyone that loves the horror genre.

There are a few more good horror Japanese films to mention. Dark Water was director's Hideo Nakata's second film after Ringu. This is a much slower paced movie that doesn't scare as much, but is worth seeing. The 2001 flick Pulse is my final choice with its unusual story relating to computer programs and people dieing from the hands of computerized images.

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