20 Awesome J-Horror Movies Every Horror Fan Should See
1. Ring
Plot: A journalist watches a cursed video-tape that kills anyone who views it after seven days and must stop the curse before it kills herself, her ex-husband and their son.
Fine, Ring is an obvious choice for number one but it's obvious for a reason. Ring is the J-Horror film.
Not only does it have everything you expect from J-Horror - ghost girls, techno-horror, slow-burn scares - but it's also the gold standard of the execution of these tropes.
A nerve-shredding, visually magnificent and painfully tense masterpiece with dread, tragedy and fear running through every single frame, Ring is a truly terrifying horror film with excellent performances and a poignant, haunting ghost story to boot.
Perhaps the most ingenious thing about Ring is that, even though it's short on traditional scares, it will still have viewers covering their eyes most of the time since the film is so atmospheric and chilling. It's one of the creepiest movies ever made.
This popularised J-Horror and despite the hit-or-miss sequels and the godawful American remake, it holds up very well.
It's hard to imagine another J-Horror film ever topping this, but given the remarkably high standards J-Horror movies consistently meet, who knows?