From the Coolidge Corner Theatre's website:

Summer is a time for scares in Japan. As a way of chilling their bones in the heat, people challenge themselves to watch kaidan, or ghost stories. The Japanese word for this is kimodameshi.

Some say the reason for this tradition is the fact that Obon, the festival of the dead, falls in August. Other scholars attribute the phenomenon to Edo-period Kabuki theaters performing ghost stories outdoors in the summer to help audiences keep cool. Whatever the origin may be, we thought we’d contribute to this terrifying means of climate control!

In partnership with the Japan Society of Boston, we’ve programmed five films spanning 50 years of supernatural storytelling from Japanese filmmakers. From Kenji Mizoguchi’s masterful Ugetsu (1953), to the folk-horror fantasia Demon Pond (1979), through 2004’s hair-raising Hollywood horror The Grudge, and more, "Kaidan Kimodameshi: Chilling Tales from Japan" will certainly send a tingle down your spine this summer!

JSB members can get $3 off tickets by using the discount code provided on the Member Portal!

Screening Schedule:

Ugetsu

Tuesday, July 1 at 7:00pm

A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.

Kuroneko

Tuesday, July 8 at 7:00pm

Beware the haunted women who lurk in the bamboo forrest as black cats craving the blood of men!

Demon Pond

Tuesday, July 15 at 7:00pm

Japanese renegade Masahiro Shinoda transforms a classic Kabuki tale with his own extravagant visual style in this dimension-shattering folk-horror fantasia.

Kuroneko (additional screening)

Sunday, July 20 at 2:00pm

Beware the haunted women who lurk in the bamboo forrest as black cats craving the blood of men!

Ringu

Tuesday, July 22 at 7:00pm

One curse, one cure, one week to find it.

The Grudge (2004)

Tuesday, July 29 at 7:00pm

Once you see it, you can never forget. Once it sees you, you can never escape.