The Yurei
A mockumentary framing offers a nice spin to the found footage genre. While most found footage films are shot and arranged in an amateur fashion to preserve their realism and home video sense, mockumentary is its counterpart. Here, the believability of the horror comes from one’s flair in crafting conceivable documentation of something purely fictional.
At some point in history, the magical girl genre existed as the pinnacle of wholesomeness. Yet, Madoka Magica became a staple as the deconstruction of it. At this time, it is fair to say that only a few pieces of media have reached the same level of quality and fan devotion. However, does that mean
From director Banjong Pisanthanakun and writer Na Hong-jin comes a Thai-Korean, Shudder-exclusive feature exploring the thin line between humans and spirits and what happens to those who cross that line without appropriate psychic protection. Presented as part travel documentary and part found footage, The Medium takes place in Isan, northeastern Thailand. Isan is a region
For those who have been living under a rock for the last few years, Vtubers are a popular format of streamers who use an animated avatar in the style of a moe anime character. At the forefront of this movement is the Japanese company Hololive, who have cornered the market in both popularity and volume
“Strings of gold sway gently in the wind, They play a sweet and gentle melody, At night I walk in the pale moonlight, Together with a dream, A secret dream..” Having spent most of my adolescence hunting down Japanese films at my local video stores and rummaging through endless online forums to discover new titles,
As streaming services diversify and begin to overtake traditional forms of media, horror has always seemed to be an afterthought when it comes to film acquisition. Often opting for the same few staples of the horror genre as well as poorly made, low-budget titles that rarely seem to hit the mark when it comes to
Japan and the West have a long history of fruitful cultural exchange, which has birthed some of the most iconic media franchises. Star Wars, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and The Matrix are all the result of these two societies being inspired by one another. There are, however, cases where a piece of media has had
It’s hard to remember when the “women’s prison” subgenre was iconoclastic, given its popularity these days. But, before we had series like Orange is the New Black, Vis a Vis, or Wentworth, we had the Japanese Prisoner Scorpion films. Though the genre first appeared during the silent era, it was often simply considered exploitation, with
When it comes to horror subgenres, body horror is, by far, the most impressive visually – the loss of bodily autonomy in the most horrendous and intimate way. As such, this element is incredibly strenuous to effectively pull off in live-action cinema, usually requiring both a large budget and tremendously skilled special effects teams to
Horror television shows are having a special resurgence in an era of lockdowns perfect for sedentary binging – production values have also been drastically amplified as these start to resemble mainstream movies; cinematography, star power, and SFX are all bountiful along with competent. The focus, too, has increased as these become ‘mini-series’ to contain a