When the idea of Japanese horror cinema is brought up, most people think of a scary girl with long black hair covering her face, slow creeping curses that eventually consume the unlucky protagonist, or yokai running rampant. Haunted homes, families in peril, and tense buildups of scares are what the genre is famous for.
However, there is somuch more to Japanese horror cinemathan pale, ghostly girls. There are incredible offerings from Japan in the slasher genre as well. Some retain supernatural elements, some are dark psychological thrillers, while still others subvert the slasher genre completely.
Lesson Of The Evil
It’s almost impossible to talk about Japanese horror cinema without mentioning Takashi Miike. This 2012 slasher is an adaptation of a novel by Yusuke Kishi and follows Seiji Hasumi, a high school teacher who decides that the rampant bullying and violence in his school need to be curbed in any way possible. The truth about Hasumi is that he is a dangerous and intelligent sociopath who has been murdering people for fun, including his parents, since he was a child.
The film becomes a tangled web ofblackmail, murder, and manipulationas Hasumi pits students and teachers against each other. He covers up his murders as suicides, sows seeds of gossip and rumors, and eventually graduates to a full-blown massacre. The film wasn’t well received upon release, hence it did not gain much traction outside of Japan. However, it’s worth watching for the stylish visuals and performance of the lead.
Black Rat
2010 slasherBlack Rat, directed by Kenta Fukasaku,sees a group of studentsreceive a mysterious message to meet in classroom 3B at midnight. The six students convene to find themselves confronted by a girl in school uniform wearing a black rat mask. The figure doesn’t speak and communicates only through writing.
Forty-nine days before this, Asuka, a member of the group’s class, committed suicide by leaping from the school roof while wearing a black rat mask. All she had wanted was to put on a production of a cultural rat-themed dance for the school’s festival, and the group had begun to bully her, humiliating her and throwing her homemade mask in the garbage. Now the teens are trapped in the school with a killer hell-bent on revenge for Asuka’s death. As the students are brutally dispatched, the question remains: isAsuka’s spirit back for vengeance?
Evil Dead Trap
Evil Dead Trapwas released in 1988, and despite its name and frequent misunderstandings to the contrary, the film is not related to Sam Raimi’sEvil Dead. Instead, Evil Dead Trap is a bizarre slasher in which TV host Nami Tsuchiya innocently asks for her audience to send home movies into her show. As a response, she receives a snuff film showing the brutal murder of a woman. The location of the film appears to be a nearby industrial area, and Nami and her television crew go out to investigate.
Of course, once theybegin to investigate, the crew are brutally murdered one by one until Nami is left alone with the killer roaming the building. In a twist to the tale, the killer is a deformed conjoined twin Hideki whose twin brother seems completely unaware of his murderous brother’s habits, despite them being attached at the hip. Fans of 80s oddityBasket Casewill enjoy this strange and brutal offering.
The Guard From Underground
Also known asThe Security Guard From Hell,this 1992 slasher isa tale of obsession that slowly spiralsinto murder. Akiko begins her new job as an art purchaser and almost immediately runs into Fujimaru, the corporation’s security guard. What Akiko and the rest of the company don’t know is that this mountain of a man is a former sumo wrestler who is under investigation for the second time for the murder of his lover and friend.
Fujimaru becomes obsessed with Akiko. He finds one of her earrings and wearing it at all times, he creates a shrine to her in the building’s basement, and he watches her every move. Eventually, hisobsession becomes all-consuming, leading him to cut the phones and power to the building. Akiko and the other employees have to survive being trapped as the hulking madman searches for Akiko.
Gurozuka
Seven years after their school’s AV Club is shut down following one member’s disappearance and another’s severe mental breakdown, students Maki and Ai decide to restart the club and make their horror film based on the events. Along with three other girls, they travel to the Yuai House. Once there, Maki and Ai show an 8mm tape of someone in a Noh maskmurdering their co-starwith a meat cleaver.
The girls want to base their film on this, but things go wrong very quickly. The car won’t start, and their phones and all their food disappears along with the Noh mask and cleaver meant to be props in their project. Soon enough, someone in the Noh mask begins stalking the students, who are trapped in the middle of nowhere with no supplies and only a creepy snuff film for company.
