I'm a big Junji Ito fan, but I haven't really found any good anime that come close to matching the creepiness of his manga stories, including that one Junji Ito anime series that's out there. I think the closest I've seen is Mononoke, though honestly I haven't seen a ton of anime, so maybe I'm missing something. I thought I'd ask to see what you all might suggest in terms of genuinely creepy/unsettling/dark anime movies or series, either similar to Ito's stuff or whatever else you think is good.
Any suggestions?
Hopefully Uzumaki anime will be good. Unfortunately there aren't that many good horror anime out there- especially with Junji Ito's distinctive mix of the macabre and absurd. Imma just gonna parrot Mother's Basement:
Higurashi: When They Cry is pretty decent horror anime, written by a former social worker. There's stuff here that's genuinely uncomfortable regarding abuse, so cw for that. Just don't watch the more recent remake/sequels Gou and Sotsu.
Shiki is just Salem's Lot set in Japan, but it works. Also, vampire's as metaphor for capitalists and all that.
Gakkou Gurashi's first episode is a masterclass in horror direction. Rest of the show, not so much, but it's still pretty neat if you can stand the (albeit tame) lolicon pandering. Also, zombies as metaphor for labour under capital and all that.
The Promised Neverland... yeah, go in blind, if you can. And stop after season 1.
the higurashi manga and vn are much better as horror, but the anime has some strong moments.
The Higurashi VN has its first chapter free in Steam, by the way.
Or read the manga! Though it becomes something completely different after the end point of season 1, it's still good. But seconding the advice to pretend season 2 doesn't exist, it's really bad.
That Mother’s Basement video is great, and I agree with most of their points, though I think they could have gone further with industry practices/structure as a reason for lack of good anime horror. Seems like a lot of it comes down to the fact that animation studios are pressured to generate standard popular anime content as cheaply as possible, and straying from that standard format is avoided for being too difficult/expensive, though there are some standouts like Mononoke.
Shiki and Higurashi I’ll definitely check out. I haven’t heard of the other two mentioned, but I’ll look into those as well.