J- Horror and its american remakes

[Jim Harper]

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Michael- what you describe is fairly common in horror movies throughout the world. From my own writings I know that both the 'Final Girl' in slasher movies and her opponent typically come from dysfunctional families, backgrounds of abuse, psychological/physical isolation or simply don't 'fit in'; for example, Laurie Strode from Halloween (1978) is an adopted child, liked by her friends but too cerebral and basically unfashionable to fit in. It certainly applies to Japanese horror cinema as well, but it's a fairly universal concept. 
   
  Interesting parallels in western cinema can be found however. Peter Medak's The Changeling also involves the vengeful spirit of a child left down a well. George C Scott plays a divorcee whose only child was killed recently, driving him into physical isolation in an haunted house deep in the countryside.
   
  Jim Harper. 

Michael McCaskey <mccaskem at georgetown.edu> wrote:
  --but one of my students is in fact currently trying to write an honors thesis on Japanese horror films, and he has adopted the idea that in many of them, the haunted person/victim is someone who is isolated--such as an only child in a dysfunctional family, a recently divorced or widowed person, a "loner" of some kind. Again, if his idea works much of the time, it may just be because isolation is a factor found in horror films in many cultures and countries.

Regards,

Michael McCaskey



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