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2. Dark Water (2002) - Haunting in the Depths
This is a classic horror film telling the story of Yoshimi, who divorced and became a single mother. To prove herself capable of caring for her daughter, she moved to a dilapidated apartment building, where haunting events begin. It starts with a small leak forming on the ceiling. Something like dark hair in the bathroom. A chilling sensation sets in.
3. Tag (2015) – Demon Game
The film revolves around high school student Mitsuko, who is on a bus with classmates when suddenly a killer swiftly massacres everyone on board, leaving her as the sole survivor. We then follow Mitsuko into a chaotic, blood-drenched battle for survival.
4. Uzumaki (2000) – Spiral of Horror
The movie tells the story of a cursed town where residents are haunted by terrifying spirals that drive the town's people mad. The main characters in the film race to break the curse, but can they stop them?
5. Suicide Club (2001) – Club of Self-Inflicted Demise
The film depicts 54 schoolgirls holding hands and committing mass suicide by jumping onto an approaching train. As a result, they die in a bloodbath. This phenomenon plunges Japan into a wave of suicides, prompting the police to struggle to find the cause of this behavior.
6. Corpse Party (2015) – Feast of the Dead
The Corpse Party movie is set in a haunted and horrifying school, located right on an alleyway. A group of high school students performs a charm to ensure that they will be friends forever. Instead, they find themselves transported to a haunted elementary school with vengeful spirits and Sachiko herself, who is truly a ghost of a girl in a red dress. What really happened at the school?
7. Hell Girl (2019) – The Maiden from Hell
Hell Girl is based on a successful manga and anime series, focusing on a strange supernatural website that tormented and lonely individuals can access, as long as their hatred is strong enough. It allows them to exact revenge on those who have wronged them by sending them to hell.
8. As The Gods Will (2014) – Survival Game
Feeling bored with their mundane lives, what if children's games were played with your class? Except you're playing with bloodthirsty gods and the penalty for losing is a gruesome death.
This is exactly what happens to high school student Shun in a bizarre movie. Shun wishes for something exciting to happen in his dull life. But things don't go as expected. Suddenly, his teacher's head explodes and his class is forced to play children's games with a malevolent talking doll, where the walls turn red when students lose.
9. Audition (1999) – The Casting
The film Audition follows a widowed man holding auditions for his new wife and falling for the seductive woman named Asami. Except for a mysterious sack occasionally moving in her apartment. And those who know her all disappear or lose limbs.
10. Versus (2000) – Knight of the Underworld
Who would think that Yakuza, an ancient forest coming back to life, and vengeful zombies would come together? A pair of fugitives on the run and a Yakuza group clash with an evil spirit and zombies in the resurrected forest. Are the zombies really murdered victims resurrected for revenge?
11. Another (2012) – Terrifying Shadows
In the spring of 1998, 15-year-old Koichi moved from Tokyo to a junior high school in a small town. He was placed in class 3-3, which he soon learned was cursed. Witnessing a strange phenomenon annually since 1972, the students of class 3-3 and their relatives die in horrifying positions.
12. EXTE (2007) – The Proliferation of Hair
When the corpse of a dead woman is discovered, a creepy trichophile mortuary attendant steals her dead body and realizes that her body continues to grow black hair everywhere: on her head, eyes, tongue,... He begins to sell these hairpieces. But unfortunately, anyone who wears them will lose their memory and be brutally murdered.
13. Teketeke (2009) – Japanese Urban Legend
The film tells the story of a young woman who fell onto the railway tracks and had her body cut in half by a train, leaving her legless. She didn't die immediately and became a vengeful ghost after no one helped her. She drags her upper body to create eerie sounds and will tear her victims in half as she once was.
14. House (1977) – Haunted House
The film House follows a girl and her friends visiting her hometown, where they discover that her people have turned into vengeful spirits and must ultimately face a demon cat, a flesh-eating piano, a bizarre bed, and a house always craving to devour them.
15. Tokyo Ghoul (2017) – Tokyo's Ghastly Demons
The movie Tokyo Ghoul is set in a world where flesh-eating vampires disguise themselves as humans in society to avoid government attention. Ken Kaneki, a college student in Tokyo, survives an attack by a vampire and undergoes surgery. Unfortunately, he is transplanted with organs from the very vampire that attacked him, turning him into half-human, half-vampire.
Thank you for taking the time to read the article on the Top 15 best Japanese horror movies that cannot be missed, and don't forget to leave a comment below to contribute your thoughts to the article.
