When American’s think of modern horror, we typically think of sexually driven teens that are off alone doing things they shouldn’t be doing, or a family/couple that will fall victim to psychos or a malevolent beings. Our horror involves blood, gore, sex, betrayal, ghosts, little dead girls, psycho killers, demons, and the fight between good and evil. This is Not how asian horror plays out though.
Now when I think of asian horror, I think of extreme horror ,that not even a horror movie lover such as i, can handle. I’ve always imagined Asian horror as being much much much worse than american horror. I mean, come on, even some of Japanese anime scares the shit out of me, and they aren’t even trying. I don’t even want to know what one of there serious horror movies would be like. I imagine their horror movies as being beyond the realm of understanding, with crazy weird shit happening. Now these expectations I have are probably wrong in most cases, and I have based these beliefs of Asian horror on video games such as Siren: Blood Curse and Silent Hill. Granted the video game industry is different from Movies, but I still associate Asian horror with these gruesome games that constantly have you screaming “WHAT THE F@#K!??”.
The movie Audition Is a good example of my expectations. This is a movie i know about and have heard about, but I REFUSE to actually watch it. It is exactly what i expected from Asian horror. However, recently my thoughts and expectations of Asian horror have been completely flipped.
After reading the collection of Japanese ghost stories and discussion asian horror in class, i was super surprised to learn that Asian horror revolves around a whole different system. Our horror movies are about good overcoming evil… or escaping it in some cases as it chases you with a bloody chainsaw. But their system is about good and evil, and it balancing out.
In the collection of old traditional Asian ghost stories, I was shocked to see that not one story involved someone murdering another person. And the ghosts are not always vengeful spirits. These old stories are more about spirits that are a part of our world and are a natural occurrence just like rain. In these stories, the spirits were sometimes beautiful and rarely harmed the living. These collection of ghost stories is a lot calmer than I expected.
The asian horror movie Pulse, is a great movie that falls between the calm and extreme measures of horror. We watched a little in my Literature class today, and I was hooked. It is taken place during the time that computers were just coming out to the public and it really made computers and new technology seem creepy.
Asian horror is definitely unique, and can be refreshing from our horror that can be repetitive. I’m glad I dipped my toe into Asian Horror, but I can’t imagine going any further. I’ve had my taste, and maybe one day i’ll be brave enough to venture further, but for now i’m satisfied.
Little Red's Blog 
Spot on the description of western horror, I also feel like Asian horror performs better. I couldn’t watch all of Audition, so it’s understandable why you refuse to watch it and went for Pulse instead (I kinda wish I watched that one now, but the tension in that movie is stressful). I have yet to see spirits that in Japanese horror that didn’t harm the living though, benevolent spirits if you will. Unless they were tricked into not harming someone or simply found some sort of peace, the ones I’ve seen or read about seem to affect people in some way or another, usually negatively or to exchange something. This adds more tension and anticipation whenever a character encounters a spirit, or maybe I just need to read more stories.
… I’m not sure why wordpress has an automatic swastika-shaped avatar for a person who wants to comment but doesn’t have a wordpress account… I hope they take that down soon, because that’s the worst design choice I’ve seen on a blog.
What do you think it is about the Asian Style that makes it so much creepier than the western style? Does the fact that they rely more on restoring balance make a difference on our overall opinion?
They still have blood, guts, decapitation and all that jazz – so what is it that makes them so freakin’ weird?
Excuse any generalizations in what I’m about to say, there are obviously films on both sides that break the mold but I’m struggling to pin point what I think it is that actually makes them scarier. Maybe I just haven’t watched enough horror movies. Maybe it’s just the reputation that they get. I would say they are arguably less predictable in many cases. The enemies often less tangible, more spiritual and generally just a bit creepier – but honestly, I’m not sure!
What do you think it is?