Why Aren't There More Japanese Horror Films

[Mariposa Electrique]

Seriously, I think I've seen most if not all of them. It's not like the West where there's a ton of great horror films. So why aren't there that many Japanese horror films?
I love Kyofu
Ring
Parasite Eve
And several others

I think the Japs when they make horror films, they're like 10x more thought-provoking, scary, and unique than anything you can find in the West, but they're just so few. What I love is that the themes and scenery in Japanese horror films are sort of elevated forms of Cosmic Horror.

 

[Judge Holden]

Plus, little girls aren't scary and they seem to think they're the scariest thing on the planet.

Gonna have to interject here and say that you are probably confusing the burger remake of Ring with the norm of J-Horror.

Pretty much all big name "Onryo" style spoopy ghost movies have fully grown japettes or teenagers as the ghosts, including the OG Ring and Grudge franchises and the various ripoffs and homages, with the only notable exception I can think off the top of my head being Dark Water.

And sure, the Onryo subgenre of J-horror has indeed been milked to desiccation by this point, but then you could say the same thing about shit like the zombie genre now or the slasher genre back at the end of the 80s.

Shit became popular and well liked and thus profitable so mindless producers spammed the fuck out of it until it decidedly stopped being popular and well liked and thus profitable.

 

[Idiotron]

There are plenty.
I've literally seen over 100 Japanese horror movies in my life and there are people who have seen more.
A lot of them are trash which genuinely doesn't deserve to be known outside of Japan, we usually get the better ones with official translations.
Still, there are a ton, you just have to look for them.

I also recommend South Korean horror movies.
SK has been killing it lately, they have a few duds here and there like everyone but they have a better track record than most.

 

[All Cops Are Based]

there's only so much mileage you can get out of "aaaa there's a spooky ghost standing there with long black hair aaaaa I'm going insaaaaaane"

 

[I'd abeeb bear]

Gonna have to interject here and say that you are probably confusing the burger remake of Ring with the norm of J-Horror.

Pretty much all big name "Onryo" style spoopy ghost movies have fully grown japettes or teenagers as the ghosts, including the OG Ring and Grudge franchises and the various ripoffs and homages, with the only notable exception I can think off the top of my head being Dark Water.

And sure, the Onryo subgenre of J-horror has indeed been milked to desiccation by this point, but then you could say the same thing about shit like the zombie genre now or the slasher genre back at the end of the 80s.

Shit became popular and well liked and thus profitable so mindless producers spammed the fuck out of it until it decidedly stopped being popular and well liked and thus profitable.

I wasn't excusing other overused genres, but as most of us did I went through a Japanese horror movie phase back in the 2000s, and if you saw one, you knew what the rest were going to be like. I wasn't thinking of the remakes, I'm talking about Japanese horror overall. They have a ton of symbolism in their culture around little girl ghosts and it shows up in manga, anime, horror movies, just everything. I can't give a bunch of examples off the top of my head, but that's because I haven't been a weeb in a long enough time to have it all catalogued.

Also, their more extreme horror like Ichi the Killer and what have you all felt the same too. I remember being told to watch Audition over and over in every circle back when I cared. When I finally did, I couldn't give less of a shit because of what I was saying in my first post. When you have something so completely ambiguous, purposefully, you wind up with the "u juss dun get it" midwits telling people that it's super deep. Evangelion has proven this time and time again, considering the creator used meaningless symbolism that was foreign to Japan, but weebs have always pretended it was the most intelligently crafted experience of all time. Same goes for most of their horror movies.

 

[Kornula]

there's only so much mileage you can get out of "aaaa there's a spooky ghost standing there with long black hair aaaaa I'm going insaaaaaane"

Sorry, but you've clearly only seen one Japanese horror film. They are all 1000% different and creepy

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

because it makes me want to fuck the monster instead of being afraid.

 

[RollerGator]

Jap horror used to be good but then The Ring came out and afterwards every jap horror movie had to be some lame ghostly school girl shit instead.