Japanese Horror

Japan’s horror stories date back centuries. They feature ghosts and poltergeists or entities like the yōkai, all with strong roots in traditional folklore. The term yōkai comes from the Japanese for suspicious and doubtful. There are many types of yōkai, shape-shifting being perhaps the most common trait. Some seek to harm humans, while others are benevolent; others simply want to play tricks. In the traditional Noh theatre, stories of vengeful spirits were popular and influenced later horror works.

Japanese horror grew immensely following the Second World War and the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The genre of Kaiju features giant monsters destroying cities, an allusion to the nuclear attacks.

Japanese horror films are known for psychological elements, rather than jump-scare horror as seen in Western. Kwaidan, 1965, is based on traditional folklore horror and is notable for establishing the trend of women with long unruly hair, a fi xture in many Japanese horror films. (The Ring.) Some of the best-known Japanese horror fiction are work by Junji Ito. Ito has said that his works are inspired by everything from his parents’ stories of war to his surrealist dreams.

Chinese Horror

Chinese Jiangshi horror first appeared during the Qing Dynasty. The Jianshi is a corpse reanimated by a Taoist priest. The Jianshi hops rather than walks and absorbs one’s life force. In 1930 Hong Kong films like Midnight Vampire, were very popular.

These films differed from Western Vampire films due to the use of martial arts, adding elements from the kung-fu films of the period. In the 1989 film Vampire vs. Vampire, Jianshi clashed with Western vampires.

Danny Ryanto from Unsplash

Indian Horror

In India the horror genre was considered to corrupt the youth and the government tried to curb the genre. Despite this, audiences flocked to the theatres. The 1949 film Mahal is considered India’s first horror film after gaining independence. The dark atmospheric film uses music to create an eerie atmosphere, without the need for frequent death or violence.

In the 1970s Indian horror began to flourish. Hits like Nagin, 1976, by director Rajkumar Kohli mixed horror and fantasy.

In 2003, Bhoot is credited with bringing Indian horror back to the box office. The Yakshi genre encompasses both vampires and witches, some of these films may not contain many horror elements, instead taking a religious stance. Indian horror often uses monsters and villains to create commentary on social issues. Subjects such as caste restrictions, non-hetereronormative relationships, and environmental topics are all commented on through the lens of horror.

Korean Horror

After World War 2 and with increasing Western influences, Korean horror films began in earnest. The 1960 film The Housemaid laid the groundwork for later films. Featuring little supernatural horror it introduced the central staircase as a plot device.

Later films like A Devilish Murder, draw heavily on The Housemaid, like protracted flashbacks and a controlling mother or mother-in-law. The trope of mother figures as villains in these films would prove to be a mainstay in the genre. Unlike its predecessor, A Devilish Murder becomes increasingly violent, featuring supernatural elements and decades-long plots.

Korean horror remained relatively obscure until the 1990s. Most of the films considered genre-defining are from the 1990s and early 2000s. A Tale of Two Sisters from 2003 is an adaptation of a Joseon dynasty folk story. The movie features two sisters and their dealings with mysterious ghosts and their stepmother. The film features many psychological themes, a common aspect of the modern Korean horror film.

Black Horror

Horror films are often comments on social or political issues. Villains and monsters represent fears and taboos, such as in Jordan Peele’s 2017 Psychological horror Get Out. Get Out follows a young African-American man and a white family attempting to effectively turn him into a slave while gaslighting him into a state of compliance.

It is deeply personal for director Jordan Peele to express his own experiences and fears. The villains in the film are not “typical” racists, but middle-class liberals, drawing attention to the fact that despite not having the outward appearance of racists, the whites in the movie actively work to harm and reduce Black characters.

The genre of Black Horror (“Blacula” (1972) and “Blackenstein” (1973) and more recent shows centred around Blackness like “Us” (2019), Misha Green’s “Lovecraft Country” (2020), Little Marvin’s “Them” (2021) and Nia DaCosta’s 2021 sequel to “Candyman” (1992) address the horror a Black audience feels when their mere presence can itself be a source of terror to others in a systemic racist society. Horror movies provide a way to deal with real-world brutality and racism. This reaction is not unlike the increased creation of horror in the wake of the Great War.

European Horror

Many Western horror genres trace back to Ancient Greece. Pliny the Younger is the original creator of the haunted house story.

Gothic stories are fundamental for many future horror stories such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In the early 1900s periodical publishing, led to a boom in horror writing. It is during this time that many of the famous horror genres still popular emerged. Serial killers like Jack the Ripper laid the foundation for slasher horror.

Indigenous Horror

Indigenous history and horror are often closely related. The trope of “Indian burial grounds’’ upon which a haunted house stands is seen in countless horror films. In zombie and pandemic literature, characters have their civilizations wiped out; these stories are real to the Indigenous population of the Americas where European settlers brought diseases and death.

Perhaps the most well-known, is the Wendigo, a cannibalistic creature native to Algonquin folklore. The Wendigo is associated with winter, starvation, and cannibalism. The creature is often depicted as a giant, larger than a human. Wendigo’s hunger and cannibalism are often understood as greed and gluttony.

Another common story is that of the Mosquito Man. This story tells the tale of how mosquitoes came to be. When passing a newborn child around, the Mosquito Man eats the infant’s brains. The onlookers are horrified. After many are killed, the survivor manages to trap the man beneath a lake, lighting a fi re atop him from which mosquitoes spread.

Internet Horror

The internet and video games, further expanded the genre when in the 1990 survival horror games such as Clock Tower and Alone in the Dark appeared. Both feature haunted buildings which the player must explore and overcome. “Creepypasta” is an internet horror story. Stemming from the words “creepy” and “copypasta” which derives from copying and pasting, creepypasta is a form of viral copied and pasted horror stories that have spread across the internet. Many of these stories center on haunted games or serial killer figures such as Slenderman.