Of the many popular genres in contemporary Asian cinema, none has experienced the kind of growth and success like horror, and over the last decade or so it’s grown into an impressive phenomenon that has racked up dedicated and loyal followers worldwide. Yet even outside of the fanboy crowd, the Japanese horror film, or J-Horror (and its Korean equivalent K-Horror), has become the subject of serious critical study, and multiple volumes have been written on the subject.

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It doesn’t take much more than a precursory glance at Hollywood’s output in recent years to conclude that there’s without question a shortage of original ideas. Reboots of old franchises (STAR TREK), endless, pointless sequels (THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2), and even toy and board game-based movies (GI-JOE, MONOPOLY) are being green-lit by studios more than willing to dump millions into their productions. But by far the most egregious offense is the ever-increasing trend of remakes, particularly of films from Asia. To look at the situation, you’d think there wasn’t a single original screenplay to be found in all of the US.

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