Temperatures are rising, and one of my favorite ways to cool down is to grab an iced cold drink and settle in for a spine-chilling, scary movie. This list highlights titles from Japan where the focus is on the supernatural, the psychological, and the nonlinear. If you're ready to rattle the sweat off your brow and send yourself shivering under the covers, check one of these movies out and press play. But take heed and beware, as the contents of some of these titles may be disturbing.
One Cut of the Dead
Not Rated (Content Warning: Blood, Mild Violence)
A small-budget zombie film gets interrupted by real zombies in this 2017 horror comedy.
Watch on Hoopla
One Missed Call
Rated R (Content Warning: Graphic Images, Themes of Abuse)
Yoko misses a call on her cell phone while out with friends. It's from her in the future. When the date and time of the voicemail left from the call arrives, it kicks off a string of unfortunate ends for the rest of her friends in her contact list as they start getting calls of their own.
Watch on Kanopy
Noroi: The Curse
Not Rated (Content Warning: Disturbing Images, Themes of Cults)
Masafumi Kobayashi is a paranormal researcher working on a documentary after multiple disappearances. This project takes him to a remote village, the home of a man said to have gone mad, and the doorstep of a missing girl's home.
Watch on Hoopla
Ju-on the Grudge
Rated R (Content Warning: Graphic images, Themes of Abuse)
This feature film has branched into five Japanese sequels, three American remakes, and a Netflix miniseries where everything always comes back to an infamous house. When a social worker is sent to check on the elderly resident of a neglected home, she unknowingly becomes part of an inescapable, cursed web.
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Ringu
Not Rated (Content Warning: Graphic Images)
Based on the bestselling novel series by Koji Suzuki comes the cult classic movie Ringu. A reporter's niece dies mysteriously, adding to the growing list of similar deaths happening in the news. Picking up the story from there, we follow the reporter, Reiko, as she unravels the secrets surrounding the deaths and an unassuming video tape.
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Audition
Rated R (Content Warning: Disturbing Images, Themes of Abuse)
After Aoyama loses his wife, he resigns himself to a quiet life living with his son. That is, until his friend, a film producer named Yoshikawa, comes up with a plan to get Aoyama back in the dating game. With encouragement from his son, Aoyama opens auditions for a new wife.
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About the Author
Emily is a circulation clerk at both the adult and youth desks. She is a fan of books, movies, and manga. Generally, a lover of literary fiction and horror but always down to try anything. When not reading and watching movies she enjoys beading new pieces of jewelry.