Japanese Box Art – Horror Movies
We continue our look at Japanese box art with a group of horror movies. Asia as a whole knows how to scare the heck out of me with their horror stories, so I wonder how Japan dressed up the boxes of some of my favorite American horror movies.
Warning: there are disturbing images on some of these.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Ah jeez, they went straight for the gross-out stuff – bugs in your mouth, tongues in your phone, and a guy on fire. Looks like they were going for shock value with this cover.
The Exorcist
This VHS was released in 1979. I saw more recent Japanese releases of The Exorcist with much creepier things on the covers, specifically a big red image of Regan staring menacingly at the camera. It’s interesting how this back cover is so tame. All that text is apparently explaining the history of how the movie came to be made.
The Silence of the Lambs
The LaserDisc edition of this one goes right for the jugular. I’m shocked that they decided to feature some of the more gruesome scenes in the movie here. And that huge red photo of the death’s head moth over Hannibal’s mouth is something I haven’t seen on English releases of the movie. It’s really evocative.
I’ve seen that red Hannibal image before, but I’m pretty sure you’re right that it’s never been used as the cover for any American release of the film. I guess the white Jodie Foster version just got to be iconic and more closely identified with the movie.