Cultural Divide: Western vs. Eastern Horror 

After reading the short stories of Kwaidan, there are some stark differences in the art of storytelling that is displayed in the Western horror genre from that of Eastern stories. However, since both still share the same goal of trying to unnerve and strike fear into their audiences, both are still rooted in very similar concepts that bind the both together. The dividing factor that separates these two genres culturally seems to lie in how each side builds up the fear factor. 

In Western horror, much of the "horror" comes from shocking imagery. Many Western horrors rely on some sort of mutilation, which even brought about an entire genre of "slasher" films. Western horror also likes to mix in the mundane reality of life and then tie in the horror factor, in order to scare the audiences into fearing that the events in whatever they happen to be consuming, can also happen to themselves as well. Western horrors also have much more of their stories tied to a religious background, utilizing fear of the devil and a more Christian take on the definition of "evil" in order to strike fear. This may be because Western audiences have a much bigger percentage of Christians than those of their Eastern counterparts, because Christian concepts of evil are more scarce in the Eastern version of horror. Instead, Eastern horror relies much more on their long history of orally passed down stories and superstitions. 

In Eastern horror, there is a heavy focus on the supernatural. Since the bulk of Western horror comes from American Hollywood, it can't help but be shaped from an American perspective. America is a pretty young country compared to any Asian country and therefore doesn't share the deep rooted ties to ancient mythos and superstitions. Asian countries have many ideals of horror that have been passed down since thousands of years ago that can still be seen implemented into its horror. This can be seen in Kwaidan, as the bulk of these stories have a historic quality and tell themselves almost like a folk story or something you'd tell over a campfire. Instead of Christian imagery, the setting has now changed to that of a Buddhist one, as Eastern countries have more historic ties to Buddhism than it does to Christianity. Although Eastern stories still have a grisly factor to it, like that of Hoichi getting his ears torn off or the description of the man being decapitated in Diplomacy, it is not the focus of the story. Instead, the audience should be more fearful of that of the unknown, of what could happen. Hoichi did not yet know if he would be torn apart by the vengeful ghosts that haunt the town nor did the villagers in Diplomacy know if the spirit of the decapitated man would really come back to exact revenge. The tension originates from the fear and anticipation that something horrible might happen, not the gory details itself. Eastern horror also likes to mix in social commentary within their horror most of the time and audiences can get a feel for the climate of Eastern society reflected in the work, depending on what year the horror novel/film was created. 

Despite these differences, both Western and Eastern horror share a lot of things together and now with growing international audiences for both Western and Eastern stories, aspects of both have sifted from one into the other. In the present, I think there is less of a division between Western and Eastern horror, because despite cultural differences, horror stories all originate from fears that are universally shared. Even if one side might not understand the other due to inherent differences in ethinicity and culture, if a horror is good enough, an understanding of the culture is not necessary to still feel scared and enjoy horror content from both sides.