J-Horror

     Japanese horror, as opposed to the Western horror I've grown accustomed to, focuses on the psychological and suspense building aspects of horror.  Although not entirely unique to itself, these themes are the dominant use of horror.  That alone represents a difference in cultural orientation.  In Western culture, the formula may be a crazed axe-murderer that startles you with jump scares and loud orchestral stings, but J-horror builds tension relatively slowly and focuses on folk-lore, spirits, and themes from classic ghost stories.
     A good example of cultural shift is in the movie Pulse.  We noticed in this movie that there's an absence of romance.  A typical role to fill in Western horror movies is the male and female couple.  One can expect them to overcome the ordeal they're thrown into, proving their strength and love for each other.  Another good thing to note was the scene with where the ghost of a young woman is walking up to the boy who unsealed the taped-up door.  The music was increasing in volume, and being accustomed to Western horror I expected a loud crescendo and jump scare.  That never happened, it just sort of cut abruptly.  It left me with a completely different feeling. I felt anxious even after the scene ended because there was no conclusion to the scare that I really expected.
     The existence of good and evil in Western culture is clearly defined.  It seems that is there is something bad, it exists for the purpose of doing harm to whatever or whoever may defined as good by contrast.  J-horror, though, seems much more circumstantial.  The first film of the Kwaidan movie illustrates this example well.  The man sort of fell into meeting with the spirit, eventually forgetting the promise he made.  The spirit was not intent on doing harm to him, and even decided not to at the end.  If this were a Western story or film, the man probably would have met his end the night he first met the spirit.