15 Essential Horror Movies Since 2000 You Might've Missed

15. Kairo (Pulse)

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s there was a huge level of awareness for what became known as J-horror - kickstarted with the release of Hideo Nakata's seminal ghost story Ring in 1998, it led to a flurry of extreme Asian movies being released in the West, with many predictably turning up as Hollywood remakes. One of the best of the early bunch is also one of the most under-appreciated: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Kairo - known as Pulse outside of Japan - tells the story of a young woman and a student who discover that ghosts are entering the world of the living via the internet, intent on turning earth into their new home. Kurosawa takes the ghost story concept and, throwing in a prescient twist on the genre conventions by playing on the fears of a disconnected world in the digital age, delivers one of the most atmospheric and chilling movies to have emerged from Japan, superior in every way to the much more successful US remake.