Good horror recommendations?
 

With Halloween around the corner, I've decided to watch some horror animes. As someone who used to be a big horror nut growing up, it's long overdue. Anyway, I started with Higurashi and just finished episode 3 and am already hooked and predict I'll be blowing through both seasons by the end of the weekend. I think the sort of camp start to it was absolutely perfect and it hits a nerve sort of with how uneasy it makes you feel with the way it is and as soon as it starts to ease up, something else hits another nerve.. never seen anything quite like it but needless to say I'm really impressed.

I'm mainly looking for a proper horror, not an action anime with minor horror elements such as say Claymore or the first few episodes of Hellsing. Probably seen a few people would recommend but am still open for suggestions.

Ghost Hunt is all I got. Since you seem to be looking for anime that are trying to be creepy rather than what might classify Hellsing as horror.

edit: There's also Another I guess. It was okay.

Try Bakeneko, or for a lighter touch, Hakaba Kitarou.

Another.

10char

I second Another as well. How about giving one of the most obscure horrors called Pet Shop of Horrors a shot ?

i forgot to mention Mouryou no Hako before. It's slow-going in the middle but very worthwhile overall. Watch the opening scene on the train for a taste, and stick around for the OP; it's one of my favorites.

Boy, Madhouse can do some remarkably beautiful shows when they put their minds to it. The opening close up on the fellow's glasses with the overlay of moving shadows from the passing scenery is just gorgeous. I also admired

Um Elfen Lied its gory but good but I don't know if you want to call it horror bur it's still good to watch

Higurashi (well, at least the first season), is pretty much the one shining example of horror in anime, though I found it to be more lol-horror, than wet-my-pants-horror. :heh: Since you're watching that already, I suspect anything else you try to watch to achieve a similar feeling will leave you disappointed. :p

Umineko: When They Cry was supposed to be a spiritual successor, I guess, but it doesn't come close to getting nearly the same reaction out of you as Higurashi did. But, your mileage may vary. Even without as much shock value as I'd have liked, I still enjoyed it.

There's plenty of anime who's atmosphere tilted towards the macabre/creepy, but I wouldn't say they were proper horror shows; rather, they tend to be psychological/mystery thrillers.

I'm actually kind of curious, as I think about this, as to why there are so few true horror anime. I wonder if it's a cultural thing?

Try Shiki - theres included vampires & werewolves.
if you liked Higurashi then give a shot to Umineko
edit: ah , i forgot Gai-Re-Zero

There is an trailer for the Paranormal Activity 4 movie right now that shows audiences at test screenings jumping out of their chairs and the like. One of them is filmed in Japan where there were lots of teen-aged girls showing the same reactions as the ones in the US and Australia.
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Still, as you say, horror is just not a genre that appears very often in anime. It also rarely appears on American network television. Maybe horror just doesn't work well on television where you are watching alone or in a small group in a safe surrounding like your living room. Watching horror in theaters with large numbers of similarly screaming patrons is part of the genre's appeal.

Ghost Hound
Serial Experiments Lain
Thriller Restaurant

3x3 Eyes! Lots of blood, demons, paranormal stuff, psychic powers, and immortal beings.
And I'll second Ghost Hunt, the doll episode had me on the ceiling!

Uhmm, Jigoku Shoujo maybe?

How about Mononoke? It's not like, extremely scary, but it has that horror "feel" if you know what I mean.

Your criteria cut out a lot of midway titles. Mononoke and Ayakashi are the only two I could recommend as being 'proper horror'. Umineko could work since you like Higurashi, but that is on troll hyper-steroids mode, even by Higurashi standards.

You and me both!

I second nearly everything in this thread, epsc Ghost Hunt, Shiki, Another, Mouryou no Hako and Mononoke For more subtle horror you might want to try Bokurano and the currently airing Shinsekai Yori. Also a few epis of xxHolic sent shivers done my spine, epsc the 100 stories epi from s1. :). Also Highschool of the Dead was pretty good. Nice action and zombies.

How about:
Boogiepop Phantom
Shigofumi
Kara no Kyoukai

Seconded:
Jigoku Shoujo
Bokurano
Ghost Hunt
Mouryou no Hako

Dunno if you read manga but Gyo is one of the most horrifying things I've ever read. Actually I can't even recommend this one because I found it so unsettling. Read at your own risk.


EDIT Apparently there i an anime adaptation of this that just came out. I'm too afraid to watch it anytime soon. EDIT

Anyway my favorite horror anime is definitely Higurashi. This one is hard to beat.

Some great horror movies are Kakurenbo and Perfect Blue .

Most of the horror in anime is mixed with action. Examples of this include (I enjoyed all of these):

Berserk
Fate/Zero
Chrono Crusade
D. Gray-man

and my all time favorite action/horror anime:

Soul Taker

If you want more psychological horror, I'm always quick to recommend Narutaru and Bokurano but these are not quite horror in the traditional sense either.

I don't know if you've seen this but why don't you give Cossette no Shouzou a shot if you're interested.