Twenty years ago, a new wave of Japanese supernatural gothic thrillers brought fresh tropes of dread to a genre that was sorely in need of them.
The sinister intersection of technology and the afterlife; the presence of ghosts that looked like rotting versions of demons out of Japanese folklore; the assertion of a feminine rage that burst forth like a scream across time — all of this put J-horror, a genre named (at least in the States) to sound like a category of indie rock, on the cutting edge of 21st-century fright cinema.
Yet the movies, for all their shivery viciousness, could be hit-or-miss.
“Ju-On (The Grudge)” (2000), one of the most popular, was also one of the most middling — a haunted-house saga no less corny or obvious than “The Amityville Horror.” The American remake, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and released in 2004, was even worse.Now, just in time for the dumping ground of early January,
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