Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Star Scholar Contribution

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2010): Sound on Screen

Acoustic Infidelities: Sounding the Exchanges between J-Horror and H-Horror Remakes

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14288/cinephile.v6i1.197951
Submitted
March 12, 2023
Published
2010-03-01

Abstract

This article considers the process by which contemporary Japanese horror (or J-horror) films are remade into Hollywood horror-thrillers (or H-horror), and explores the new perceptual challenges that emerge as the soundtracks are reconceptualized in ways that are often unfaithful to past sound traditions and practices. My aim is to specifically address the differences between narrative traditions and characterizations of evil, the influence of digital technologies, and the transnational exchanges between Japanese and American filmmaking as they relate to sound design. With regard to genre, this migration of J-horror audio techniques has served to revitalize horror within Hollywood, opening the door to expanded conceptions of what is horrific. Through the formal and thematic construction of new hybrid soundtracks, H-horror remakes, like their predecessors, ponder the dark side of globalism as it has revised traditional expectations surrounding economics, gender roles, and cultural and social exchanges. In the end, these films leave us with the sense that we are all haunted by the consequences of modernity.