Review of Kwaidan (1965) by Noel R — 21 Dec 2012

This is not a horror film. O.K there I said it, now that that is out of the way I think that most anyone can build an appreciation for this movie. This is a movie that celebrates the ghost story. I think most of us can remember sitting down around a camp fire or a flashlight telling ghost stories. Those stories are told not through jump scares and gory killings, but slowly, methodically, silently, building up to a suspenseful climax. It is not the story itself that is important, but the telling of it. This movie is directed in much the same way. It is told slowly, methodically, silently. It is not the stories themselves that are important, but the telling of them.

Yet each story gives us something new, and there is something I think, to take away from each of these for everyone. It is also important to note that there was no clearly defined horror genre in the mid 1960s. There were no jump scares or slasher films (the movies that would spawn these films were only just being released). The horror tradition however is as old as film itself, and this is a testament to the fact that we as human beings have always and probably will always be afraid of the dark, the supernatural, and the unknown. The film is a stylistic experiment and ode not just to ghost stories but to story telling in general. Watch it for the historical value and artistic merit, and in the right setting, it might just creep you out.