15+ Terror-fic Japanese Horror Movies On Netflix | Feel The Terror!

Do you like watching horror movies as well? These movies might scare the sh!t out of you, but you still like the experience, right? So, keeping your (weird) love for Horror entertainment films I’ve got some excellent Japanese horror movies on Netflix. I guarantee that these movies will prove to be a reliable source of sleepless nights, goosebumps, dark circles, and more. Despite all this, you will still be coming back for more.

The Japanese film industry has single-handedly made a huge change in the horror genre and given us films that no one ever imagined. Their unique take on scary films has inspired tons of other Hollywood movies. If you are looking for some Japanese horror films that have a six and above IMDb rating, then you are at the right place. So, without further ado, let’s get started!!

9 Best Japanese Horror Movies On Netflix | Fall In Love With Fear!

What are you planning this weekend? If there are no lavish parties to attend and “nothing” is your answer to my question, then let me suggest some good Japanese horror films that you can watch with your friends or alone. These scary movies will definitely make your boring weekend more fun! .

#1 Cure (1977) 

If you are a fan of the film Seven (1995), you will fall for this movie. Acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time and gaining popularity worldwide, Cure is a Japanese mystery horror film released in 1977. The film is a story of a detective, who is assigned to investigate a string of gruesome murders where the murderer leaves the X mark on the victim’s body.

So, the whole story starts with gruesome murders in the town, and Kenichi Takabe is given the task to solve the crime. In all these murder cases, he finds that the perpetrator is different but has the same way of killing. They all make the same X mark on the neck of the Victims’ body. Also, every time he finds the culprit near the crime scene who accepts their crime, but on the investigation, they have no clear intent on what drove them to kill. 

Later with the help of a psychologist named Sakama, they find a man who was a common thread to all these crimes. Every person who meets him commits these devious murders. They find out that he is a master of hypnosis and capable of planting criminal suggestions in the minds of strangers. Now, why he was doing that, and what happened in the end? All this mystery will be solved in the movie Cure.

• Directed By: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
• IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Stream On: The Criterion Channel, Netflix

#2 Ring (1998) 

Based on a 1991 novel by Kojo Suzuki, Ring is a viral Japanese horror film that triggered the trend of western remakes of the same movie. Released on January 31, 1998, the film follows the investigative story of a cursed videotape that kills its viewers after seven days of watching it.

So the whole story starts with the two high scholars, Masami and Tomoko, who came to know about a videotape that is said to have a curse and kills the viewers who watch it. So with excitement, Tomoko watches the tape with her boyfriend and soon witnesses some strange things happening with her. Later after seven days, Tomoko and her boyfriend were killed by an unseen force.

After the death of Tomoko, her maternal aunt, a newspaper report takes charge of the investigation. Soon she finds some very strange and hard-to-believe facts behind the videotape. What happened next in the movie, and was she solving the mystery behind the tape? All the answers are in the movie Ring.

• Directed By: Hideo Nakata
• IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Stream On: HBO max, Vudu, Amazon prime video

#3 House (1977)

In Japan, House is a Japanese experimental comedy horror film released on July 30, 1997. The film depicts the story of a schoolgirl who went to her aunt’s house during her vacation along with her six friends. They’re at the house; she starts to witness some supernatural events as the house begins devouring her friends one by one.

The story starts with a young girl named Gorgeous who has made summer vacation plans with her father in Italy. When his father returns home, he surprises her by announcing a new stepmother. This upsets Gorgeous, and she drops all her plans with her father and goes to her aunt’s house with six of her friends.

As the girls entered the house, they started experiencing supernatural things like Gorgeous possession to a mirror and Mac (Gorgeous friend) head flying in the air. The movie is filled with some of these funny ghostly incidents. Watch the film to find out the whole mystery behind the haunted house. Fans of the Monster house (2005) film will love watching this movie.

• Directed By: Nobuhiko Obayashi
• IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Stream On: HBO max, Vudu, Amazon prime video

#4 Noroi: The Curse (2005)

Noroi: The Curse is a Japanese horror film released on August 20, 2005. This is a Pseudo-documentary-style movie that utilizes found-footage conversation. The film is about a paranormal investigator who disappeared during his documentary. The film gathered good reviews from critics.

Masafumi Kaboyashi is a profound paranormal researcher who has made a lot of supernatural documentaries and written a lot of books. So the story starts when he makes the supernatural documentary entitled, The Curse. In the making, he disappeared after his house burnt down and his wife was found dead in ruins. The movie then starts playing his documentary through the recordings of Kobyashi cameraman Miyajima. 

The video recording takes us to his past cases and indicates that some curse has followed him from his last paranormal investigation. Now I feel that you will be shaken to death once you watch the movie.

• Directed By: Kōji Shiraishi
• IMDb Rating: 7/10
• Run Time: 115 minutes
• Stream On: YouTube prime, Amazon prime video

#5 Kuroneko (1968)

Shot in black & white and TohoScope format, Kuroneko is a Japanese horror film adapted from supernatural folklore. Released on February 24, 1968, the movie is the story of the vengeful spirits of a mother and her daughter-in-law, who are killed by a group of samurai.

Yora and her daughter-in-law Shinge lived in a bamboo grove where a band of samurai attacked them. One day when they were alone, the samurai troops entered their house, ra*ed them, burned their shelter, and killed both of them. Later, these women return as a ghost to take revenge on every samurai.

A man named Hachi is given a mission to fight with the ghosts killing the samurai. He came to know that spirits are none other than his wife and mother in the task. What happens next in the movie, and what does Hachi do after that? All answers will be cleared in the film Kuroneko.

• Directed By: Kaneto Shindo
• IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Stream On: Criterion Channel, Netflix

#6 Reincarnation (2005)

Reincarnation is a Japanese horror film released in October 2005 at the Tokyo film festival. The movie centers around a young actress who takes a role in a movie that is about the 35-year-old hotel massacre. As she takes her role, she starts seeing the vision of the massacre.

So the story starts with psycho Professor Norihasa Omori. To understand and study reincarnation, he visits a hotel and kills eleven of the hotel guests, employees, and his children before he commits suicide. After 35 years, a horror movie director decides to film that massacre and casts Nagisa Sugiura in Omor’s daughter Christo.

Now when she accepts the role in the movie, she is haunted by the ghosts of the massacre victims. Soon she started hallucinating and getting nightmares of the killings in the hotel massacre. What happens next in her story, and how does she manage to escape the clutches of her deadly hallucinations? All the answers are in the movie Reincarnation.

• Directed By: Takashi Shimizu
• IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
• Run Time: 95 minutes 
• Stream On: Amazon Prime, Mubi

#7 One Cut Dead (2017)

One Cut Dead is a Japanese comedy horror zombie film that, with a budget of $25,000, scooped $31.2 million worldwide. Premiered in November 2017, the movie follows the blunders of a filmmaker and his team when they were tasked to shoot a Zombie film for a live TV and had to do it in one single take.

The film starts with director Higurashi, who has taken the task to shoot a zombie film for television. He desperately wants the film’s success because of his mounting debts, and to make the film more realistic, he decides to shoot the film in the WWII Japanese facility. Now, as the actors of the movie could not deliver a good performance as zombies, Higurashi arranged a blood pentagon and painted it there to activate real zombies. 

When he activates the real zombies, the cameraman becomes a zombie and bites the assistant director turning him into the same. Now how the director shoots the film with the real zombies and at the same time manages to save himself from them, seems interesting. Know about his adventures in the movie One Cut Dead. The movie has some real twists and turns that will mess with your stomach as you will burst into tears of laughter.

• Directed By: Shin’ichirō Ueda
• IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Stream On: Vudu, Netflix, Amazon prime video

#8 As The God Will (2014)

This is the Squid Game Lovers movie as The Gods Will is a Japanese supernatural horror film that premiered on November 15, 2014. The film is an adaptation of the first arc of the eponymous manga that goes around a group of classmates who were forced to play a death game. To stay alive, they have to continue winning the task in every game.

Shun Takahata is a high school student who spends most of the day playing violent video games. One day at school, he whines that he is the most boring person who has never done anything adventurous in his whole life rather than playing video games. Soon he was forced to participate in a game of death in which winning every task was the only way to avoid extinction. 

There were five games in total that the players had to win to avoid getting themselves killed in the movie. What were these games, and who was the mastermind who started this game? All the answers are in the movie As the Gods Will. This is another movie that you can watch after the Squid Games series.

• Directed By: Takashi Miike
• IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
• Run Time: 117 minutes
• Stream On: Vudu, Netflix

#9 Lesson Of The Evil (2012)

Premiered on November 10, 2012, Lesson Of Evil is a Japanese horror film that adapts a 2010 novel of the same name by Takashi Miike. The film is a story of a young, popular, dashing teacher who hides his dark past and homicidal urges under his fake gentleman personality.

Seji Hasumi is an English teacher from Harvard University with an MBA degree. He has worked in an investment bank for two years and joined a school to pursue high school teaching. Though he appears to be a gentleman with excellent knowledge, he is a man with evil deeds. Hasumi is a sociopath with no empathy for anyone and is a patient with severe antisocial disorder. 

He has a dark past in which he killed his parents and his former tutor at fourteen. What happens next in the story of this evil teacher, and when did the world get to know his true nature? The curtains from the mystery will be removed once you watch the movie Lesson Of The Evil.

• Directed By: Takashi Miike
• IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
• Run Time: 128 minutes
• Stream On: Amazon Prime Video, Netflix

Here Are Some More Japanese Horror Movies On Netflix | Watch These Movies Now!

After you’re done watching the above-mentioned scary movies, make sure to check the below-listed ones as well

Final Words

So, these were some scary Japanese horror films! Which one are you going to watch first?! If you have found your favorite movie from the list, go and start streaming them using your Netflix subscription! But if you don’t have a Netflix subscription or can’t see movies there, then don’t worry; you can find these movies on YouTube as well.