7. Jigoku (1960)
Shiro is a young university student who is engaged to a lovely young woman. He has, however, a sinister friend called Tamura who has a hold over him. Tamura holds incriminating evidence over others as well. One night he offers Shiro a lift home and he runs over a drunken Yakuza man. Shiro wants to report the accident but Tamura motors on. The man's mother witnesses the accident and notes down Tamura's licence plate number. She vows to take revenge. Realism now takes a flying leap through the window. Despite being the moral one, Shiro suffers the death of his girlfriend, terminal illness of his mother, his father's exposure as an adulterer. The Yakuza's mother and wife are on his back and Shiro seems to be surrounded by people who are guilty of causing the death of other people. And then there is a descent into hell which is very violent and gory. Jigoku is a unique film in that it doesn't seem to have a precursor in the Japanese film world. It just appeared out of the ether. Immensely influential in the world of J Horror, Jigoku set a template of nightmarish torturing, gore and sadism that the worst excesses of J Horror would seek to imitate. It's influence can be seen in Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood and the recent Grotesque. But more importantly, the film kickstarted and set the sadistic violence that is characteristic of a lot of J Horror films - even mainstream J Horror. Jigoku was also the first film to feature a large amount of gore (I wonder if HG Lewis had a peak at this film before he made Blood Feast). It was an instant horror classic that was fiercely iconoclastic and must have really put the wind up audiences in 1960. The torture scenes and special effects are more cheesy to modern audiences than anything. The film has a groovy jazz score to offset all of the torture. Heck, this whole film is torture porn before the sub genre had ever been invented! An absolute must see for J Horror fans - this is where it all began.