The Sinners Of Hell: J-Horror Film Analysis

Japanese films such as "The Mansion of the Ghost Cat" (Borei Kaibyo Yashiki - 1958), "Lady Vampire" (Onna kyûketsuki - 1959), and "The Sinners of Hell" (Jigoku - 1960) are all examples of Japanese Kaiki films that existed prior to the popularization of the J-horror genre both in Japan and in other countries. Kaiki films can be considered as the main inspiration behind the present-day Japanese horror films and could even be considered as the impetus behind the continued development of this niche industry. However, despite their connection to the J-horror genre, it cannot be stated that Kaiki movies can be categorized as horror movies under the context of English language horror films. While they do contain aspects related to horror, such as …show more content…
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