In its late 1990s and early 2000s heyday, J-horror became a worldwide sensation by doing scares differently from what was then the norm in Hollywood. Instead of crazed slashers, Takashi Shimizu¡¯s ¡°Juon: The Grudge¡± (2002) frightened audiences with a Tokyo family of ghosts who infected visitors to their suburban home with a deadly curse.

Nearly 20 theatrical shockers later, Shimizu is still setting his scary movies in mundane locations ¡ª his latest, ¡°Sana: Play With Me,¡± unfolds mostly in a high school ¡ª but what felt fresh at the turn of the millennium has hardened into formula.