Japanese Horror Cinema

A much-needed critical introduction to some of the most important Japanese horror films produced over the last fifty years, Japanese Horror Cinema provides an insightful examination of the tradition’s most significant trends and themes. The book examines the genre’s dominant aesthetic, cultural, political, and technological underpinnings, and individual chapters address key traditions; the popular “avenging spirit” motif; the impact of atomic warfare, rapid industrialization, and apocalyptic rhetoric in Japanese visual culture; the extents to which changes in the economic and social climate inform representations of monstrosity and gender; the influence of recent shifts in audience demographics; and the developing relations (and contestations) between Japanese and “Western” (Anglo-American and European) horror film tropes and traditions.

Japanese Horror Cinema includes a preface by Christopher Sharrett; case studies of internationally renowned films such as Nakata Hideo’s Ringu, Ishii Takashi’s Freeze Me, and Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale; and a filmography of Japanese horror films currently available in the U.S. and the U.K.

Contributors: Christopher Bolton, Phillip Brophy, Ian Conrich, Gareth Evans, Ruth Goldberg, Richard Hand, Steffen Hantke, Matt Hills, Frank Lafond, Graham Lewis, Jay McRoy, Xavier Mendik, Gary Needham, Steven Jay Schneider, Christopher Sharrett, Eric White, Tony Williams.

• Jay McRoy, Editor