10 Horror Movies That Break The Genre

One of the most iconic examples of J-horror is Onibaba, a 1964 film directed by Kaneto Shindo. Although not as popular as other Japanese horrors (like Audition or Ringu), it is widely considered one of the finest films in the genre - if you agree it belongs there, of course.

The plot centres around a mother and daughter-in-law duo - credited only as Older Woman (Nobuko Otowa) and Younger Woman (Jitsuko Yoshimura) - who are struggling in a period of civil war. Their next-door neighbour, Hachi, causes tension between the two, as the Younger Woman begins an affair with him. Then, their lives are changed forever when a lost samurai arrives on the scene, wearing a scary Oni mask.

For a lot of its runtime the film is a slow burner focusing on the relationships between the three main characters. In the same vein as many J-horror films, the film is more of an atmospheric mood piece, rather than an over-the-top scare fest, centring more on uneasy and haunting tension.

And, like Audition, the film is all building up to the last 10 minutes, where the film undeniably shifts into a full-on horror film. All we’ll say is that the true origin of the mask is revealed, in a sequence that combines heart-stopping tension with some gruesome gore. And, the 90-minutes of build-up beforehand just makes the ending all that more powerful.