This video provides an historical overview of the development of "J-horror" as a unique set of thematic concerns and aesthetic practices that emerged in Japanese horror films in the 1990s through close formal analysis and contextualization using writings by J-horror filmmakers. It connects this development to: (1) transformations in Japanese film, television, and video production and the practical limitations that they placed on filmmakers working in this context, (2) the influence of domestic and international horror films, and (3) the influence of film theorists on college students who became horror filmmakers and critics in Japan

Bio: William Carroll is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of East Asian Studies. His first book, Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema, was published in July 2022. He is currently working on a book about cinephile culture and film production in Japan from the 1980s through the present, which will incorporate J-horror.

Moderator: Dr. Christopher Lupke