I have to be in a certain mood to watch Asian horror. I must confess that I mostly haven't been in that mood for quite a few years. In the previous decade, I was quite taken with Asian horror (along with everybody else) and I watched all the classics, as well as the American remakes: The Ring, The Grudge, The Eye, The Shutter, Audition, Two Sisters, Dark Water.
I enjoyed being introduced to new horror conventions that aren't typically seen in Western horror films, such as non-linear plots, unreliable narrators, flashbacks-within-flashbacks, and adolescent girl ghosts with long, dark hair, often dripping with water. However, at some point, I just got tired of these conventions and stopped watching. With this article, I have rediscovered Asian horror and have found some real gems as well as some good near-misses. Here are nine Asian horror films that I feel deserve more attention or higher ratings than they've been awarded so far.
