While audiences are indeed scared, the goal of frightening audiences is secondary compared to the message that the movie is attempting to impart which consists of correlating "evil" actions with future karmic retribution. English horror movies do not encourage their audiences in such a manner in fact in most English horror films there is no underlying lesson involved. This is because they focus on the experience of the audience during the movie (i.e., making sure they are frightened) and not on the lessons they may take away from having watched it. This is not to say that English horror movies are inferior to their kaiki Japanese counterparts; rather, it is more accurate to state that their focus diverges significantly from one another when it comes to their desired end goals wherein one wishes to simply induce fear (i.e., English horror movies) while the other focuses on presenting a lesson for the audience to learn from (i.e., Japanese kaiki
While audiences are indeed scared, the goal of frightening audiences is secondary compared to the message that the movie is attempting to impart which consists of correlating "evil" actions with future karmic retribution. English horror movies do not encourage their audiences in such a manner in fact in most English horror films there is no underlying lesson involved. This is because they focus on the experience of the audience during the movie (i.e., making sure they are frightened) and not on the lessons they may take away from having watched it. This is not to say that English horror movies are inferior to their kaiki Japanese counterparts; rather, it is more accurate to state that their focus diverges significantly from one another when it comes to their desired end goals wherein one wishes to simply induce fear (i.e., English horror movies) while the other focuses on presenting a lesson for the audience to learn from (i.e., Japanese kaiki