The recent increase in the visibility of Japanese horror films in Britain can be traced back to the 2000 release of Nakata Hideo's Ring. The commercial theatrical release of the film was a key step in the gradual penetration of Asian cult cinema into the British market. The success of the film was instrumental in the development of the Asia Extreme label, and the home video distribution rights to Ring would later be bought by Metro-Tartan to support their developing interest in ‘extreme’ Japanese cinema. Japanese horror films released in the UK are generally promoted on their foreign credentials; their Otherness is seen to be the very substance of their appeal. Yet the critical reception of Ring in Britain demonstrated a process of familiarisation, rather than a focus on the new and unknown. In discussions of the film by the UK press, Ring was located in various cinematic traditions that had nothing to do with the film's meaning in its original Japanese context. While the Japanese identity of the text was virtually ignored, the film was defined by its relation to a cycle of American horror films popular at the time. Ring was frequently presented as an alternative to the dominant Hollywood cycle of horror films, set apart from this prevailing postmodern cycle and associated with two unexpectedly successful ghostly horror films. In locating the film among these other texts, reviewers used their discussion of Ring to enter into existing debates about the merit of suggestive horror above graphic violence.

POSTMODERN HORROR AND THE RESTRAINED TRADITION

On its release in 1996, Wes Craven's Scream proved an unprecedented success; the teen slasher movie combined shock deaths and gory violence with a metatextual humour that invited the audience to laugh at the clichés of the genre. Scream's success was a revitalising force in the Hollywood horror industry, and launched a series of postmodern slashers that became the dominant force for the next few years. Initially embraced, the postmodern humour of Scream and its sequels was seen as an important part of its appeal; yet a contingent of horror fans saw Scream as too ‘tame’ and ‘jokey’, and the film found strong opposition from many critics.