Although these days you can’t mention Junji Ito without a comics snob rolling their eyes at you, this wasn’t always the case. With Ito’s cosmic horror series Uzumaki finally getting a television adaption from Adult Swim (which has sparked plenty of controversy in its own right), there’s never been a better time to explore the world of Japanese horror. This robust and varied genre out of Japan encompasses everything from the original Ring movie to Parasite Eve, a novel about our mitochondria hijacking our bodies to make us spontaneously combust. In short, there’s a lot of great horror being produced outside of the Western world.

With so many options available to you, it can be tough to know where to begin. This list specifically focuses on J-horror comics and films—just enough to get you started. Maybe you’ll find a new favorite in the bunch.Without further ado, let’s get to some J-horror classics!

The Best Japanese Horror Movies for Newcomers

We all know the internet is a nexus of great evil that should have never been invented. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 film presupposes that it is also full of ghosts. Japanese college students race to unravel the mystery of a contagion of suicidal depression that stems from ghosts trying to get everyone to join them in digital purgatory. Pulse features what many film critics consider to be the scariest scene in cinema, and it’s a gripping portrait of a crisis of isolation that’s only become more prescient as time has gone by.

Prolific director Takashi Miike directs this lurid thriller starring Ryo Ishibashi as widower Shigeharu Aoyama, who auditions women to replace his dead wife by saying they’re up for a part in a new television series. Shigeharu quickly becomes infatuated with the enigmatic Asami (Eihi Shiina), but their whirlwind romance unravels as the mysteries surrounding Asami begin to mount, the most concerning of which is the squirming sack she keeps in her apartment.

Teenager Gorgeous takes her six friends (all named, Snow White-style, after their defining characteristic) to her aunt’s country house where they are each consumed by various pieces of the house in this lurid fever dream by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Released to negative reviews, the film has maintained fairly widespread cult status for its oddball humor and bizarre visuals. Just one piece of advice: Don’t get caught calling the film “Hausu”—Obayashi intentionally picked the name since he felt it would be “taboo” for a Japanese film to have a western name.

Satoshi Kon directs this 1997 psychological thriller, a terrifying portrait of obsession, stalking, and murder in the Japanese pop idol industry. When Mima Kirigoe (Junko Iwao) leaves her group to pursue acting full-time, an obsessive fan begins stalking her, causing Mima’s grip on reality to become dangerously loose. This movie has been made unfortunately all the more prescient because of recent news regarding pop star Chappell Roan and her obsessive fans, but it also showcases all the animation chops that made Kon one of the greats.

An old woman and her daughter-in-law run a tidy business during the civil war by murdering fleeing soldiers, looting their possessions, and dropping the bodies down a giant pit in this 1964 movie by Kaneto Shindō. However, their plan unravels when their neighbor returns from war and begins seducing the younger woman. The film is not only a beautifully shot period drama, it also features a scene where Hachi, having been rebuffed by his love interest, becomes so distraught he spends a good five minutes screaming and flipping himself around in the dirt like a bug.

The Best Japanese Horror Comics for Newcomers

Set on an alternate version of Earth where the Cold War never ended, sharp-toothed teenager Denji makes a deal with the Chainsaw Devil that gives him the power to fight devils for a government agency. Probably more famous now for its shiny new anime adaption, author and illustrator Tatsuki Fujimoto has cooked up a truly horrible world where our collective fears become devils (some favorites of mine include the Katana Devil and the Sea Cucumber Devil). However, the series’ most horrific reveal is that getting to second base isn’t enough to erase the pain of having to work for a living.

Literally translated as “Mud-sludge,” mangaka Q Hayashida’s love-letter to refrigerator-shaped women stars Caiman, who’s searching for the sorcerer who replaced his head with a reptile’s. Caiman spends his days doing shoe-leather detective work—accosting any sorcerers who come to the dystopian megacity of Hole by sticking their heads in his mouth to verify whether they’re the one that did it to him. It doesn’t usually end well for the sorcerers, which has caused Caiman to accumulate quite the list of enemies.

Mild-mannered high school student Akira Fudo’s life takes a turn for the worse when he becomes fused to a demon named Amon, thereby creating Devilman, in this classic manga by the prolific Go Nagai. The series is probably better known for its divisive Netflix adaption Devilman: Crybaby and its unintentionally hilarious 1987 OVA dub. But Nagai is a singular writer (as loaded a term as that entails), and it’s nice to revisit a time when the manga industry wasn’t quite so polished.

Five graduates of a Buddhist college start a company that helps the dead finish their unfinished business in this long-running series written by Eiji Ōtsuka and drawn by Housui Yamazaki. The manga is structured largely as a series of short stories, with each one acting as a specific cases. It’s a little hard to find these days, but well worth it if you can hunt down the Dark Horse collections, which often feature extensive notes and guidance on some of the nuances the translation may not capture.

Amateur jiu-jitsu practitioners and factory workers Fujio and Mitsuo accidentally kill their boss and hide his body in a dump on the outskirts of Tokyo. Unfortunately, this just happens to coincide with a zombie outbreak and the total collapse of society. Years later, Fujio is forced to grapple in zombie-pit fighting matches in order to keep living in a shantytown filled with pigs. Yuasku Hanakuma’s comic is a strong contender for one of my favorites of all time, not least because of a scene where a guy gets his penis bitten off by a zombie he mistakenly assumes is an amorous woman.