The Best Japanese Horror Movie From Each Year Of The 2000s – Screen Rant

J-horror is one of the most beloved genres for fright-loving audiences. Many of its movies in the 2000s got American remakes, including Death Note.

Japanese horror, also known as J-horror, influences Western cinema in many ways. With a scary movie tradition spanning back to the late 1940s, Japan introduced the world to vengeful ghosts, post-World War II tales of terror, and kaiju monsters like Godzilla. By the 21st century, Japan's emphasis on haunted houses and nuclear families shined through with the island nation's horror movie efforts.

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Just like the '90s, the 2000swere an important decade for J-horror. Each year saw the release of crucial fright films, ranging from found-footage flicks to supernatural psychodramas to dystopian gorefests. As with previous decades, the best J-horror films of the 2000s were later remade for American audiences, includingDeath Note,Pulse, andDark Water. But J-horror fans will always prefer the original.

Long beforeTheHunger Games, there wasBattle Royale. This uniquely Japanese action-filled horror movie follows a group of junior high schoolers who, thanks to Japan's new totalitarian government, must fight each other to the death until one victor emerges from the crowd.

Drugged and sent to a remote island, the students employ all kinds of weaponry and skills to kill each other and protect themselves. Viewed as one of the best dystopian movies of all time,Battle Royaleis also mired in controversy because of its extreme depictions of violence.

Pulse is one of the first, and likely the best, horror films to tackle the oncoming internet explosion. Told through two interconnected storylines, the film evolves in a tech-heavy Toyko where ghostsencroach upon the world of the living through the internet.

This digital ghost story is shot with uneasy camerawork, making the storytelling all the more uncanny. While the computers and cell phones inPulse feel outdated by today's standards, the themes of despair, loss, and artificiality at the center of the movie still resonate loudly.

While 2002 is also the yearJu-On: The Grudge hit theatres, most critics believeDark Water is a more effective scary movie. A taut domestic supernatural thriller,Dark Water focuses on a mother and daughter who experience strange occurrences in their new apartment building.

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An imminent divorcelooms in the background forYoshimi as the ceiling of her new apartment starts leaking more and more every day. Soon, a ghost literally engulfs Yoshimi and her daughter ina watery deluge of pain, retribution, and fury.

Only the most extreme of Japan's horror moviemakers,Takashi Miike, could turn a movie about the Yakuza mob into a hallucinogenic fever dream.Gozu centers around a gangster underling named Minami who ventures on a bizarre journey through Japan after he's asked to assassinate an unstable Yakuza leader.

In Miike fashion,Gozu unravels into an absurdist, violent movie that involves ghosts, men donning the heads of cows, and a missing body. Equally macabre and hilarious,Gozu makes for one visceral cinematic experience.

This anthology film is the work of three directors from East Asia: Hong Kong's Fruit Chan,South Korea'sPark Chan-wook, and Japan'sTakashi Miike. In Miike's contribution,Box, a woman is haunted by memoriesfrom her youth as a circus performer

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Now a novelist, 25-year-oldKyoko can'tlet go of a strange accident that resulted in her sister Shoko's death. As the short progresses, the distinction between reality and fantasy disintegrates.

One of Japan's best found-footage horror films,Noroi: The Cursecombines VHS culture, paranormal investigations, and archival images from fictional TV shows to weave together a supernatural story. The fake documentary that structures the film revolves around a filmmaker digging into the legend of an ancient demon known as Kagutaba.

While it builds up to some well-placed jump scares,Noroi develops slowly, relying on atmospherics and old curses to terrify audiences. Each grainy moment of the movie is designed to fill viewers with dread.

When Light Yagami stumbles upon the "Death Note," a magical notebook that leads to the death of anyone whose name is written in it, thecollege student decides it's his duty to take out the world's criminals. This burgeoning vigilante runs into trouble, though, when law enforcement begins connecting all the dots.

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A talented detective named L is soon just one step behind the owner of the special notebook. Death Note is based on the popular manga of the same name, and it was remade for American audiences by Netflix in 2016. The remake pales in comparison to the original film.

Set in feudal Japan,Kaidan is a supernatural romance about two ill-fated lovers wrapped up in a ghostly curse.Shinkichi is the son of the cruel samuraiShinzaemon, the latter of whom murdered a moneylender namedSoetsu 20 years prior and dumped the man's body in theKasenega-Fuchi River.

In the present, Shinkichi falls in love withToyoshiga, the daughter of Soetsu. Soetsu's vengeful spirit has no intention of letting the two consummate their love, though.

Much more whimsical and poetic than its contemporaries,Sweet Rain: Accuracy of Deathhighlights the trials and tribulations of a modern-dayGrim Reaper. Seven days before a person is set to die, Chiba arrives on the scene to figure out whether or not the person should get another chance.

Chiba's latest subject is a woman namedKazue Fujiki, who works for a manufacturing company. Will she live past her expected death date, or will Death himself decide it's time for her to move onto the next realm?

Another found-footage film,Occult is directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who is also responsible forNoroi: The Curse. InOccult, another misguided filmmaker with a camera decides to tamper with supernatural forces in order to solvemurders at a popular sightseeing resort.

LikeNoroi,Occult comes across as a real documentary, relying on improvised responses, choppy cinematography, and believable scares. The movie dives into every creepy and curious belief imaginable as it gets closer and closer to the source of all the mayhem.

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Megan is a public librarian by trade obsessed with the intersections between art, culture, and society. She's a nerd for horror, obscure memes, weird history, graphic novels, and binge-worthy science fiction series.

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The Best Japanese Horror Movie From Each Year Of The 2000s - Screen Rant