It being Halloween, our minds turn naturally to things grisly and ghoulish, and what more fitting than the genre of Japanese horror films? With recent titles like Ichi The Killer, Pistol Opera and Suicide Circle (JP Review has an extensive list with write-ups), you aren’t going to leave the cinema with that inner glow and a big smile on your face as if you’d just seen Babe. Chances are, in fact, that your popcorn hand froze half way to your mouth in the opening scene and stayed there until the lights came on and the staff were asking you to leave.

Japanese horror has more to it than inventing the most gruesome way to meet your maker, though. Many themes and conventions used in modern films had their origins in early Japanese films. George Lucas admits that the two characters that bind his Star Wars films together (no, not Luke and Han), C3PO and R2-D2 were loosely based on a couple of bumbling fools in Kurosawa’s 1958 movie The Hidden Fortress, as was the rest of the plot. Bet you didn’t know that.

More modern Japanese films are meant just to scare the heebie-jeebies out of you, see the remake of The Grudge for reference, and whilst you may not be quivering the whole way through, there is one instant where we guarantee a bottom-leaving-seat-in-shock moment Others simply compete to find the most macabre methods to end an existence. It is fair to say, though, that the majority are consummately composed and shot pieces of cinema. Kuroneko (showing on Sky Arts this evening at 9pm) is no exception to this rule. Chilling and sinister, it describes the beyond-the-grave revenge of a mother and daughter who take the form of cat-spirits (seriously) to punish the samurai who raped and killed them. Early use of the wire work that has become standard, coupled with the haunting content and stunning photography makes this an enlightened change from the run-of-the-mill driller killer offerings that you might find elsewhere tonight.