A rich goldmine of cinematic terror, Japanese horror has long been celebrated for contributing some of the most effective and traumatizing films that the world has ever seen. There is no doubt that the nation's filmmakers have mastered the art of fear, tormenting audiences with their tales of vengeful spirits, hostile curses, and maniacal killers capable of haunting viewers long after the credits have rolled.

Ranging from modern classics which cast a scathing lens upon modern society to historical tales which delve into the darkest aspects of human nature, these movies have made a mark on global audiences with many even earning English language remakes due to both their impact and their popularity. Eerie, nightmarish, and downright spine-tingling, these 15 films mark the scariest Japanese horror movies and are must-watch pictures for all who love horror cinema.

15 'Marebito' (2004)

Directed by Takashi Shimizu

A woman with a bloodied mouth looks down the barrel of the camera.
Image via Palisades Pictures

Blending poignant social drama with monster horror with mixed results, Marebito was an ambitious undertaking from Takashi Shimizu which served as an intriguing portrayal of loneliness and mental deterioration. It follows Takuyoshi Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto), a disturbed and volatile cameraman with a desire to understand the essence of fear, as he discovers a homeless girl living beneath the Tokyo subway and brings her back to his home where he makes the shocking discovery that she feeds on human blood.

Set in a gloomy urban atmosphere, it projects an uneasy sense of voyeurism through its grainy footage as Masuoka captures disturbing events to satisfy his curiosity. With the peculiar being he discovers reminiscent of the creatures in H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, Marebito is steeping in horror inspiration and presented as a characteristically chilling film from Shimizu as it came out in the same year he released Ju-On: The Grudge.

Watch on Kanopy

14 'Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman' (2007)

Directed by Koji Shiraishi

Two women and a man sit tied to a post in a basement with bloodied shirts and rags shoved into their mouths.
Image via Tornado Film

While Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman was hamstrung by its budgetary limitations, it did transcend its B-movie foundations with its basis on a terrifying urban myth from Japanese folklore known as Kuchisake-Onna, and its flaunting of one of the most underrated horror movies monsters ever put to screen. It takes place in a small suburban town where the residents are being terrorized by a malevolent and vengeful spirit which is kidnapping children.

The film's ambitious and admirable efforts to weave the urban legend into a twisted and eerie commentary about motherhood and abuse aren't quite as sharp as they could have been, but it still functions well as a blending of slasher thrills and supernatural eerieness. Complete with a disturbing villainous entity that hacks at people with a pair of scissors, Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman is an effective Japanese horror movie, if not a flawless one.

Watch on Kanopy

13 'Uzumaki' (2000)

Directed by Higuchinsky

A man lies dead at the base of a spiral staircase with blood splattered around his head.
Image via Omega Micott

Based on Junji Ito's manga of the same name, Uzumaki proved to be an effectively moody horror film that took inspiration from the likes of David Lynch to develop a creepy and unnerving atmospheric intensity defined by its surrealist setting and mesmerizing visuals. With "uzumaki" being the Japanese word for "spiral", the film takes place in a small town where the residents are gradually forming their own obsessions with spirals, a phenomenon that sparks a series of strange and disturbing deaths.

It marked a stylish and arresting directorial debut for Higuchinsky, who excelled at capturing the essence of manga with live-action storytelling, using outlandish and shocking overlapping sequences and a unique and ominous score. Granted, Uzumaki is not as intense as some of Japan's most harrowing horrors, and its narrative could have packed more of a punch, but it still holds up as an ambitious, bold, and entrancing visual display.

Watch on Amazon Prime

12 'Noroi: The Curse' (2005)

Directed by Kōji Shiraishi

family photo of man, woman, and young girl: their eyes are censored by black bars
Image via Cathay-Keris Films
 

Off the back of the landmark success of 1999's The Blair Witch Project, found-footage horror became a defining aspect of early 2000s horror, with the underrated yet terrifying and unnerving Japanese film Noroi: The Curse one of the best films the subgenre has to offer. The film opens with an introduction to paranormal investigator Masafumi Kobayashi (Jin Muraki), who has disappeared while making a documentary titled The Curse. The documentary then begins to play as viewers are left to uncover the secrets he left behind.

The film builds the suspense quite perfectly, with seemingly isolated mysteries that involve strange and creepy events being tied together by the discovery of an old ritual that summons an evil demon named Kagutaba. With its grounded approach, excellent use of the mockumentary display, and its harrowing final moments, Noroi: The Curse is found-footage horror at its absolute best.

Buy on Amazon

11 'Tag' (2015)

Directed by Sion Sono

A girl sitting at the back of her class looks on in shock as her classmates lay around her dead and bloodied.
Image via Sedic Deux Inc.

Completely bizarre and wildly frenetic, Tag engulfed viewers from its shocking opening scene and refused to relent from there, barely holding the audience's hand as it whisks them through a maddening tale of delirium and carnage. It focuses on Mitsuko (Reina Triendl), a young schoolgirl who finds herself torn between violent alternate realities where the people around her are slain in brutal fashion without explanation.

With Mitsuko having to fight for her life as the scenarios rapidly change around her, all while she tries to uncover what is going on, the film runs at a rapid pace which insists on the audience keeping up with it. Despite the mystery intrigue and mind-bending action spectacle, the true reality that is eventually revealed proves to be the creepiest and most disturbing twist in the film.

Rent on Apple TV

10 'Pulse' (2001)

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

A young woman looking down while a ghostly woman stands in the back in Pulse
Image Via Toho

While he has worked in many different genres, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a filmmaker best known for his contributions to Japanese horror. His 2001 picture Pulse is one of his most acclaimed and most terrifying horror movies. The techno horror follows three seemingly disconnected residents in Tokyo as they investigate a series of strange disappearances linked to terrifying visions seen on the internet.

The reserved horror film doesn’t resort to graphic gore to shock fans, but steadily builds up the tension to make for an unnerving experience. While elements of the film were overlong, Pulse received widespread praise for its willingness to engage with themes relating to loneliness, depression, and suicide respectfully. Its early analysis of the risks entwined with internet usage was both prophetic and harrowing.

Watch on Amazon Prime

9 'Horrors of Malformed Men' (1969)

Directed by Teruo Ishii

A creepy looking man with dirtied hands peers at the camera while on a rocky beach.
Image via Toei

As a nightmarish, surrealist voyage into the taboo, Horrors of Malformed Men was ahead of its time as a visceral horror film willing to indulge in the bizarre and the profoundly shocking. It follows an amnesiac medical student who escapes a psychiatric hospital and assumes the identity of a dead man he bears an uncanny likeness to before his scattered memories lure him to a mystical island.

At the island, Genzaburô (Teruo Yoshida) learns of a delusional scientist carrying out plans to create an ideal community by deforming human beings to be his disturbing followers. With striking imagery, confronting ideas (especially for its time), an eerie, looming mystery, and no small amount of body horror, Horrors of Malformed Men has something that appeals to every fan of horror.

Rent on Amazon

8 'Perfect Blue' (1997)

Directed by Satoshi Kon

Mima Kiroge on the subway in 'Perfect Blue'
Image via MadHouse

Perfect Blue is an insightful horror movie that was way ahead of its time. The film opens when popstar, Mima (Junko Iwao), announces during a show that she is retiring from singing to pursue a career in acting. This news triggers violent fans to turn against the "new Mima" in a frenzied pursuit to maintain their perception of their idol.

Delusion and paranoia take over Mima as she attempts to begin her new life as an actress, all while being followed by a stalker and suffering from hallucinations of her former self. The core themes of duality, identity, and self-perception in Perfect Blue have become all the more terrifying as technology has advanced and privacy has all but vanished from our lives, with its central focus on voyeurism and celebrity stardom even more relevant today than when the film was released.

Perfect Blue
R

Release Date
February 28, 1998
Cast
Junko Iwao , Rica Matsumoto , Masaaki Ôkura , Shinpachi Tsuji
Runtime
81

Watch on Shudder

7 'Cure' (1997)

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

A detective and his partner hold up a gruesome image of a murder victim to a suspect who looks off into the distance.
Image via Daiei Film

While it may be more at home as a psychological crime thriller rather than an outright horror, Cure is still a fantastic film that excels when creeping under the audience’s skin while boasting a hypnotic and darkly alluring atmosphere. It follows a detective as he grows frustrated while investigating a string of identical homicides committed by different murderers who have no recollection of their actions.

The film became a hit both in Japan and internationally and served as something of a precursor to the explosion of popularity in Japanese horror around the world which evolved throughout the early 2000s. Cure's atmospheric tension and dark tone made for an unsettling viewing experience that continues to fester within the audience's mind long after the end credits have rolled.

Watch on Criterion

6 'Hausu' (1977)

Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi

A girl's head pokes through a wall with eerie blue wallpaper of painted faces.
Image via Toho

Landing somewhere between experimental comedy and a hyperactive, horrifying fever dream, Hausu (or House) was one of the most deranged haunted house horror movies ever made, and has become a bona fide cult classic over time. The twisted fairy tale follows a young girl as she ventures to her ailing aunt's remote estate with her six friends for a summer trip, only to uncover a nightmarish hellscape where each of the girls must confront their deepest and darkest fears.

With the fantastical opening soon taking a turn to the grotesque and disturbing all while maintaining an offbeat comedic tone, Hausu builds into a viewing experience that is impossible to adequately describe. Overflowing with unbelievable scenes, which include a famous sequence in which a girl is eaten alive by a grand piano, it remains one of the most inventive experimental horror movies ever made.

Watch on Max

5 'Tetsuo: The Iron Man' (1989)

Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

A man fused to metal casts an ominous, wide-eyed stare.
Image via Kaijyu Theatres

Standing as one of the best body horror movies ever made, Tetsuo: The Iron Man sits comfortably alongside genre classics like The Fly and The Thing as it mixes the subgenre's penchant for grueling visual horror with a complicated ghost story. Running with a bizarre narrative structure, it follows a salaryman who, after killing a "metal fetishist" in a hit-and-run accident, begins to find metal sprouting from various parts of his body.

While critics were quick to draw comparisons to the works of David Cronenberg given the film's graphic body horror, many still declared that Tetsuo: The Iron Man remained a movie that was both unique and difficult to categorize. Mixing its overt, metallic body horror with an unnerving psycho-sexual focus, Tetsuo packs plenty of horror into its slick 67-minute runtime to ensure it lingers on the mind of even the most ardent horror enthusiast.

Watch on Kanopy

4 'Audition' (1999)

Directed by Takashi Miike

A girl sits hunched on the ground in a room with a phone and a bag on the ground in front of her.
Image via Omega Project

Takashi Miike is one of the most prolific filmmakers in cinematic history, directing over 100 projects since his debut in 1991, with 1999’s Audition among his most acclaimed titles. It follows a lonely widower who, at the behest of his son, decides to start dating again and accepts the help of a film producer friend to arrange auditions for a fake film where women will try for the part of his wife.

The strange arrangement leads to Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) starting a relationship with an enchanting though withdrawn girl who is revealed to be very different from how she first appears. With gruesome shocks, Audition quickly becomes a scarring psychological horror engaging with ideas of obsession through a sadistically cruel and frightfully intoxicating lens.

Audition
R

Release Date
October 6, 1999
Cast
Ryo Ishibashi , Eihi Shiina , Tetsu Sawaki , Jun Kunimura , Renji Ishibashi , Miyuki Matsuda
Runtime
115

Watch on Tubi

3 'Ringu' (1998)

Directed by Hideo Nakata

Sadako Yamamura in the woods in Ringu
Image via Toho

While 2002's American remake The Ring saw the narrative reach an international audience and become a genre sensation, it was 1998's Japanese film Ringu that first brought the terrifying tale to the screen. Based on the 1991 novel 'Ring' by Koji Suzuki, the paranormal horror movie focuses on a reporter and her ex-husband as they investigate a cursed videotape which kills people seven days after they watch it.

Subjecting viewers to a visceral psychological onslaught before leaving them with an enigmatic and lasting sense of doom, Ringu was an excellent achievement not only as an engrossing horror movie, but as a compelling supernatural mystery film as well. Plenty of frightening jump cuts, a grating metallic screeching, and a powerful, underlying critique of modern technology made Ringu the enduring cult classic that it is today.

Ringu
NR

Release Date
January 31, 1998
Cast
Nanako Matsushima , Miki Nakatani , Yûko Takeuchi , Yôichi Numata
Runtime
96 minutes

Watch on Tubi

2 'Onibaba' (1964)

Directed by Kaneto Shindō

The demon face mask in Onibaba (1964)
Image via Toho Co., Ltd

While Japan has become renowned in recent decades for its horror cinema, it is still arguably the country’s samurai films of the 20th century which remain their most distinct cinematic achievement. Onibaba excelled at meshing the two genres together, with the historical horror film following a mother and her daughter-in-law as they kill samurai and sell their possessions to survive while their unifying love, Kichi, is at war.

News of Kichi’s death though leads to a divide between the two women, with his widow beginning an affair with a neighbor while his disapproving mother dons the mask of a dead samurai to torment the girl to her will. Despite being 60 years old, Onibaba still excels as an intense viewing experience, buoyed by its strikingly beautiful yet harrowing visuals which linger in the mind.

Watch on Max

1 'Ju-On: The Grudge' (2002)

Directed by Takashi Shimizu

A terrified woman recoils as a bloodied hand reaches towards her face.
Image via Lions Gate Films

Not only the most famous but arguably the best Japanese horror movie, Ju-On: The Grudge presents a disconcerting viewing experience thanks to its non-linear narrative and the fact that it has not just one, but two terrifying evil spirits. It focuses on an evil curse rooted in a house where a mother and her child were horrifically murdered years earlier, with the malevolent forces becoming attached to people who enter the home and spreading as its victims die.

The film has a masterful ability to mesh real-life issues such as domestic abuse with an eerie paranormal plot to create a viewing experience that oozes sheer terror. Also buoyed by a fantastic technical display and an intelligent, sporadic horror narrative, Ju-On: The Grudge was one of the flagship films in the Japanese horror boom of the early 2000s, and it remains just as effective today with its creeping sense of foreboding still able to plague the minds of new viewers.

Ju-On: The Grudge
R

Release Date
October 18, 2002
Cast
Megumi Okina , Misaki Ito , Misa Uehara , Yui Ichikawa , Kanji Tsuda , Kayoko Shibata
Runtime
93

Watch on Roku

NEXT: The Best South Korean Horror Movies That Will Keep You Up All Night