Re:Post-Human Nightmares – The World of Japanese Cyberpunk C...
by GuB-42 on Monday January 25, 2021 @03:49PM
(#25908642)
Generally, US horror is more "realistic" than Japanese horror.
It is common for US horror movies to be "based on a true story", featuring serial killers that could be real life criminals. It is scary because it is not just a story, it is real life, and you are not safe.
Japanese stories are more into the supernatural. They don't try to scare you by making things look as real as possible, instead they mess with your mind, trying to make you accept things that obviously fictive as genuinely threatening.
This is just a general trend of course, the west also has its fair share of ghost stories too, and Japan has its deranged killers.
My guess is that culture, in particular religion has something to do with it. The Japanese have a rich supernatural world to tap into, full of ghosts and spirits. Westerners essentially wiped that off in favor of an almighty god, where evil come from human with corrupted souls rather than from supernatural entities.
It is common for US horror movies to be "based on a true story", featuring serial killers that could be real life criminals. It is scary because it is not just a story, it is real life, and you are not safe.
Japanese stories are more into the supernatural. They don't try to scare you by making things look as real as possible, instead they mess with your mind, trying to make you accept things that obviously fictive as genuinely threatening.
This is just a general trend of course, the west also has its fair share of ghost stories too, and Japan has its deranged killers.
My guess is that culture, in particular religion has something to do with it. The Japanese have a rich supernatural world to tap into, full of ghosts and spirits. Westerners essentially wiped that off in favor of an almighty god, where evil come from human with corrupted souls rather than from supernatural entities.