Kylie Lee Baker picks 4 movies to pair with ‘Japanese Gothic’
In Pairings, artists and creators pick the movies that complement their latest work.
Kylie Lee Baker is the Sunday Times bestselling author of dark fantasy and horror novels such as The Keeper of Night, The Scarlet Alchemist, and Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. Her new book Japanese Gothic is available on April 14 wherever you get your books!
We asked Kylie to pick a few movies that pair well with Japanese Gothic.
Ju-On: The Grudge
The U.S. remake of this film was the first horror movie I remember watching, and was what inspired me to write a Japanese haunted house story. I found the original Japanese version scarier, and it’s such a staple for the haunted house genre.
Shutter Island
This isn’t a haunted house movie per se but it does take place in an isolated hospital where something feels off right from the start. The eerie ambiance and psychological twists that turn the world upside-down are exactly what I was going for in Japanese Gothic.
Black Swan
This is another incredible psychological thriller that makes you question reality. It’s also about trying to contort yourself into a character that you feel you need to be in order to succeed, which is what both Lee and Sen try to do in Japanese Gothic. Unsurprisingly, the consequences are disastrous for everyone involved.
Bones and All
Lee Turner in Japanese Gothic is named after Lee, the protagonist of Bones and All. It’s a cannibal movie, so the premise is definitely horrific, but at its heart it’s about human connection and how it sustains us even through terrible circumstances, which is also what Japanese Gothic is about.