Editorials
6 J-Horror Games to Play While We Wait For ‘Silent Hill f’
The late 90s and early 2000s were dominated by J-Horror. Be it through international home video sales or blockbuster remakes, franchises like The Grudge and The Ring became household names once horror fans realized that scary stories could come from places outside their own backyard. Unfortunately, things weren’t so simple when it came to mainstream horror gaming. While nearly all Survival Horror classics were produced in Japan, popular titles like Clock Tower and Resident Evil usually preferred to add a coat of Western paint to their stories, with only a handful of horror games daring to explore the regional terrors of East Asia itself.
That’s why it’s so surprising that NeoBards’ upcoming Silent Hill spin-off is finally embracing the franchise’s Japanese roots with a title that takes place far away from the Stephen-King-inspired terrors of Maine. And in honor of the title’s impending release later this month, we’ve decided to come up with a list highlighting six J-Horror games to play ahead of Silent Hill f! After all, there’s plenty of quality interactive J-Horror out there if you know where to look.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining J-Horror games as scary titles produced in Japan that also take place within the country. This means that we won’t be including western releases that just so happen to set their stories in Japan, such as J. R. Hudepohl’s excellent Labyrinth of the Demon King or even Paweł Koźmiński’s Junji-Ito-inspired World of Horror. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own J-Horror favorites if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003)
It would be a crime to publish a list recommending interactive East-Asian scares without bringing up the gold standard for J-Horror gaming, Tecmo’s masterpiece Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. While the first Fatal Frame (originally known as Project Zero) is a classic and the later sequels are nothing to scoff at, the second entry really nailed that elusive balance between narrative, gameplay, and unexpected scares.
Crimson Butterfly is also one of the few horror games to make combat just as fun as it is frightening, as getting better at taking pictures of the ghosts and racking up damaging combos doesn’t necessarily make your encounters with them any less scary. To be honest, the only reason this title ranks so low on the list is the fact that you really should have played it by now if you’re into Survival Horror!
5. Siren (2003)
Another classic from the sixth console generation, Siren remains one of the scariest Survival Horror experiences out there, even two decades later. Putting players in control of an ensemble of desperate survivors as they attempt to navigate a supernatural disaster that has transformed the denizens of a rural town into immortal killing machines, this infamous title makes up for its janky controls and unforgiving difficulty with impeccable atmosphere and a riveting narrative!
In fact, I actually prefer the original game to its next-gen remake Siren: Blood Curse, and I appreciate the fact that Sony has made it easier for horror fans to play this one through their ever-expanding catalogue of remastered PS2 games. I’m also a fan of Siren’s uncanny live-action textures that are often pasted onto low-poly models – an idea that more contemporary developers should consider when making retro horror games!
4. Ao Oni (2008)
No list celebrating interactive J-Horror would be complete without mentioning noprop’s infamous RPG-Maker classic Ao Oni, the freeware horror game that took the internet by storm during the late 2000s due to the developer’s knack for extracting terror from primitive gameplay and uncanny graphics.
While the titular Blue Demon that pursues players within the game doesn’t seem that scary in retrospect (with its distorted facial features and exaggerated proportions looking downright comical out of context), I assure you that, if you allow yourself to become immersed in this minimalist experience, you’ll soon find that this blue face will haunt your nightmares for years to come.
It’s just a shame that the game’s movie adaptations aren’t as scary as their lo-fi source material!
3. Yomawari: Midnight Shadows (2017)
Despite its frequently frustrating levels of indie jank, the original Yomowari (Night Alone) is still one hell of a great survival horror experience. However, the developers over at Nippon Ichi Software really made an effort to turn the sequel into an all-out masterpiece. And with the game following a new pair of main characters that lose their way after attending a fireworks festival, you don’t even have to play the first title to enjoy its eerie follow-up!
Boasting improved gameplay and visuals as well as a more compelling narrative, Midnight Shadows is the way to go if you only plan on trying out one game in the Yomowari trilogy. Of course, I’d personally recommend playing through all three entries in this criminally underrated series.
2. Unsought (2024)
I’ve been a sucker for first-person point-and-click horror ever since I discovered free-to-play flash games like Exmortis and Goliath the Soothsayer during the 2000s. Unfortunately, this niche genre mostly disappeared alongside support for Adobe Flash Player back in 2020. One exception to this genre extinction is Uruta Kobito’s Unsought, a panoramic horror-adventure game that places you in an abandoned Japanese town during the 1990s.
Featuring atmospheric visuals inspired by vintage photographs and a genuinely interesting story that touches on themes of toxic nostalgia and childhood trauma, this is a must-play for horror fans who don’t mind slower-paced gameplay.
1. [Chilla’s Art] Aka Manto (2019)
To be honest, this entire list could be exclusively comprised of Chilla’s Art games, and every single entry would still be worth your time. However, in the interest of keeping things varied, we’ve decided to limit the developer to a single title. And while narrowing this decision down wasn’t an easy task, I’d argue that 2019’s Aka Manto (which literally translates to “Red Cloak”) is a great introduction to Chilla’s Art mythos.
Based on a Japanese urban legend about a masked phantom that stalks young women in public bathrooms, this feature-length experience is just as frightening as it is difficult, but it’s worth powering through the frustration in order to fully immerse yourself in Aka Manto’s deliciously crunchy atmosphere.
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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