What Happened to J-Horror? - Exploring the Decline

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We typically review horror movies, explain horror movie endings and write horror lists but, today, we are doing something a little different. This article represents the start of a new category for us. A category dedicated to horror thoughts and horror musings. The first of which being the topic we are talking about today – What happened to J-Horror?

You see, something has been bugging me over the past few days. In fact, it is something that pops into my mind fairly frequently, as a horror fan. After checking out the Japanese horror movie #Manhole; I started to feel a little nostalgic for the J-horror heyday. With this in mind, I started to wonder. What happened? What changed? When did we lose our fascination with horror from the land of the rising sun?

Before we start, I would like to plug our brand new feature J-Horror Month. A month dedicated to catching up on Japanese Horror movies that we missed and, also, reviewing a bunch of classics. Click the links to take a look.

What Happened to J-Horror?

Japan used to be a premier destination when it came to horror movies. Incredible titles like Ringu, Audition, Suicide Club and Ju-On The Grudge redefined the genre. Hollywood was salivating in anticipation of remakes and fans were lapping up every little last morsel as it it were the nectar of the horror Gods. Japan could barely do any wrong when it came to scaring us westerners.

In fact, at one point, it was all that my partner and I would watch. There were so many great offerings that it was almost impossible to run out of options. Paranormal movies? Japan had you covered with tons of stellar ghost stories that were genuinely scary. Psychological horror? Audition and Noriko’s Dinner Table were just two of the more well known. Crime based horror? How about Coldfish or Cure? Action horror? Try Ichi The Killer and Tokyo Gore Police! And these are just the more well known J-Horror movies.

It felt like the Japanese had something of a Midas touch when it came to all things scary. It wasn’t just typically presented films, either. Japan’s found footage flicks were leaps and bounds better than anything the West was producing. Just look at Noroi: The Curse. Even when the movies were bad they were still watchable. Take Marebito and Grotesque for examples of that.

And Then Something Changed

For the past fifteen years, or so, however, things have been rather different. South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam are now the premier destinations for all things Asian horror and Japan has fallen to the back of the queue, somewhat. Sure, they still put out decent movies but their influence pales in comparison to the aforementioned countries. South Korea in particular.

The influence that Korea has, on the horror world, is impossible to understate. They just keep on pumping out fantastic movie after fantastic movie. Train to Busan, The Wailing, The Host, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylumn, Exhuma. And that is just scratching the surface.

I was genuinely surprised when my best friend came to me talking about a Korean horror series he had been watching, recently. This guy is not a massive fan of horror but he wanted to know where he could find more of the same. The difference in presentation and the deepness of the story shocked him and was unlike anything he had seen in genre films from the west. This show had stayed with him and changed his view on horror, as a whole.

A Rekindled Memory

My friend’s new found love of Korean horror reminded me of how I felt when I caught a showing of Audition on late night British television back in the early 2000s.

Certain television channels in the UK always had a bit of an obsession with Japanese culture. Often showing Japanese movies and random anime in the twilight hours. Giving you a glimpse into alternative media from foreign countries. After watching Ringu, I was fascinated and wanted more. My experience with Audition only reinforced that fascination.

It should probably be said that I was always a horror fan, growing up. My much older brother would terrorise me with tales of Freddy Kruger pulling out kid’s arteries and manipulating them like marionettes. Before tormenting me with the story of a film so scary it had to be banned. A movie I would later learn was The Exorcist and the part about it being scary was very subjective.

For my 12th birthday, I had a group of friends sleep over at my house. My mum agreed to accompany us to the video store and allowed us to rent out horror movies. Obviously, with the caveat that they weren’t full of nudity or too violent. A rule that I am not sure how she planned to uphold given her lack of horror movie knowledge.

Naturally, as a group of young lads, we wanted a little bit of both. Hence why we picked out Candyman, Hellraiser, and a few others. Before staying up all night scaring ourselves silly. The rest is, very much, history.

Japanese Horror Was Truly Scary

Despite my longstanding love of the genre. There’s was something about Japanese horror that felt so different. So much more intense yet, somehow, more subtle. Japanese filmmakers knew how to scare you in that very specific way that camp fire ghost stories scared you back when you were a child. They knew how to get into your head and stay there. Making you hide behind the covers but demanding that you peek out every now and then to see just what was happening.

They were never overt with their horror, either. Jump scares were absolutely minimal and the directors were more than happy to let you fill in the gaps with your own imagination. They knew it would be scarier that way. The best friend I mentioned earlier. The one who I originally watched Candyman with and is, currently, enthralled by Korean horror. Keenly remembers just how much Japanese ghost stories scared him.

One of his most primal fears is the thought of looking up towards an attic hatch and seeing the ghost of Toshio Saeki staring back at him. One of the only fears this 6′ 3″, 230lb, man has is something planted in his mind, many years ago, by a Japanese horror director.

Even now, we will poke and prod each other with the words “kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri” in our WhatsApp chats knowing exactly what it means. So haunted are we by a scar left there by Miike Takashi’s sadistic storytelling and Eihi Shiina’s tormenting vocal performance. In my mind, Japanese horror is incomparable.

But Did It Really Go Away?

With all of this being said. Is it not about time that we are due for a bit of a J-Horror revival? Could Japan reclaim its place atop the horror mountain? Could we, once again, find ourselves cursed by the cruel and demented minds of Japanese story tellers that derive altogether too much pleasure from scaring us silly?

Well, if we are being perfectly honest, J-Horror never left. The truth of the matter is that trends change and the western fascination with everything Japanese has shifted quite a bit. This can be seen with more than one medium. American’s have developed a fascination with everything South Korean. Be it their music, their food, their manufactured physical aesthetic, or their particular brand of horror.

Just like K-Pop bands are demanding all the attention when it comes to Asian music. Korean horror is demanding all the attention when it comes to that particular genre of entertainment and with good reason. Korea is an absolute horror juggernaut. They have taken everything that Japan did well with horror and condensed it into something that is irrefutably brilliant.

Sure, it is more of a thriller. But it became very clear when South Korean movie Parasite won the best picture award at the 92nd Oscars that Korea was a force to be reckoned with. In the same way that J-Horror hasn’t disappeared, South Korean horror was always here. Just look at outstanding movies like A Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw The Devil and Oldboy. South Korea always made great horror movies and thrillers. Trends just change.

Will The Pendulum Swing Back?

The sad thing about the fickleness of trend is the impact it can have on the things that have fallen out of fashion. Remember when skinny jeans were all the rage? Now the “kids” are donning the same type of baggier fits that were popular in the early 2000s. Maybe I should have kept the cargo pants I used to wear back in the day because that stuff is en vogue again, all of a sudden!

It’s a shame! Those skinny jeans probably still look pretty great. Sure, they might not fit as well now but you will remember how trendy you felt when you first put them on. You will remember how cool you thought you looked with your asymmetric bangs, black nail polish, and copious amounts of guyliner.

The reality is, however, seasons change, the weather turns, and things that were once fashionable are no longer fashionable. Just like the skinny jeans sitting in people’s closets; unworn, and creased. Japanese horror is still there. It’s just not trendy anymore. Less people are making it, less people are talking about it, it isn’t being brought over to the West as much and not as many people care enough to translate it.

Dormant But Important

We do still have options. Creepy (Kurîpî: Itsuwari no rinjin) is a 2016 horror mystery movie that absolutely deserves far more attention. Gannibal is a Japanese Folk Horror television series that is just about to get a second season. Noroi’s Shiraishi Kōji is still kicking ass with 2023’s Senritsu Kaiki World Kowasugi! One Cut of the Dead (Kamera o tomeru na!) is a brilliant zombie themed horror comedy filmed on a micro budget. Tag (Riaru onigokko) is a 2015, brutally entertaining, gore-fest. The movie that inspired this article, #Manhole, is still a lot of fun and quite watchable. And these are just the titles us in the West are more exposed to.

J-Horror is not gone. It might be, at least somewhat, dormant, at the moment. But the lack of interest and the lack of recent western exposure for Japanese horror movies can never undermine the importance of the country’s contribution to the genre we love so much. I see Japan’s influence everywhere in horror. Whether it be movies from Hollywood or the more trendy South Korean horror doing the rounds at the moment. Japan changed horror storytelling forever.

Iconic directors like Miike Takashi, Shiraishi Kōji, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Nakata Hideo and Shimizu Takashi taught us that crafting something truly terrifying was deeper than practical effects, masked killers, and overly loud noises. They reminded us that the tale being told and the characters that live inside it, both living and dead, are more important than the aesthetic or how many times you can jump scare the person watching. They showed us that to get inside a person’s head is to truly scare them. Remaining there; embedded deep in the person’s psyche forever and truly becoming immortal.

My First Horror Love

Japanese horror will always be the most important type of horror to me. Maybe because I am a millennial whose fandom grew during the height of its popularity. Perhaps because, for awhile there, it felt like my little secret that I had discovered and could share with others. Or, maybe, simply, because it is the only horror that has ever consistently scared me. Whatever the reason, I will always love it and revisit it frequently.

Whether J-Horror is resting now; soon to return to haunt us all again. Or whether it is dormant forever. Knowing its position in the world is taken up by trendier things that, perhaps, pay tribute to it but, equally, revel in having taken its place. You can never take away the impact it made on the world. Horror wouldn’t be the same without it.

I enjoy whisky. Something, incidentally, that the Japanese are also highly skilled at. I have a bottle of Yamazaki 12 that I purchased back when it was still affordable. It’s not expensive by whisky standards but there is a big difference between what I paid and what it costs in 2025. There is one dram left. Perhaps I will poor that dram tonight, open a bottle of Nikka By The Barrel, and spend some time with some old friends. Hell, I might even send my best mate a text. “Kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri”. I bet he hasn’t forgotten!