#3: Ju-On (2002)

"I told her . . . I told her . . . I told Kazumi . . . I told her again and again . . . I told her again and again . . . again and again, I told her . . . just the way you said to . . . please stop tormenting me . . . "

Ju-On (roughly translatable as "the grudge"), is the Japanese concept that when someone dies in a state of extreme sorrow or rage, the emotion itself remains behind, infecting the place where they died with a powerful curse that eventually kills everything that it comes into contact with, growing stronger as more and more victims are consumed by it . . . and that's about all I'm going to tell you about the plot of this film. It's probably the most frightening film I was willing to put on this list, and its best that you see it for yourself.

Of course, it is possible you've already seen the American remake of this film, 2004's The Grudge, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. I admit, I saw this one first as well, and while I thought it had its moments, I wasn't terribly impressed with it. But even if you've seen The Grudge, I highly recommend checking out the Japanese original. After all, I went into this film already knowing just about every major plot point, and it still scared the shit out of me . . . even the goddamn dvd menu gives me the creeps.

What sets this film apart from most modern horror films is the fact that (spoilers ahead!) there is literally no way to escape its titular curse once you've been exposed to it- it may take years but, eventually, it will get you. I think this is exemplified in the film's piece de resistance: the sequence involving Hitomi, who is working late at the office when things start getting weird. This part of the film completely strips away the audience's hopes that there might be some place of safety from the curse, culminating in a rather cruel invasion of the one place most people cower for safety: their own beds. It's always great fun to watch people who haven't seen this part squirm when they realize the blanket they're cowering under might not be as safe as they'd think.

Did I mention that the ghosts in this film are absolutely terrifying? From the little boy / cat composite to the dead wife with her horrible, throaty death rattle, these are things you definitely don't want to wake up in the middle of the night hearing (or seeing), and to have to continuously encounter them in environments most of us are familiar with (a suburban home, an apartment, an office building) really digs under your skin. I can't tell you how glad I am that my attic is both finished and not accessible by a hatch in my closet.

So glad.

Check back later for #2 . . .