A Horror DVD I Actually Kind of Liked

I was at WalMart the other day and I picked up a couple of DVDs from their 2/$11 bin. They were both Japanese horror stuff. I've watched the one called J-Horror Anthology: Legends. Judging from the Amazon reviews (2 one star, 1 two star, and 2 five star), most people either loved this DVD or hated it. I just sort of liked it.

The DVD is made of six short segments, which appear to be from some sort of Japanese anthology series (like The Twilight Zone). From a strictly "are they scary" perspective, they're not all that great. Of course, from that perspective almost no horror movie is that great since none of them scare me. The only one that even came close for me was "she Bear," which is about two schoolgirls who get chased by a demoniacal woman with a teddy bear.

"Nurarihyon" wasn't even remotely scary, but I don't think it was supposed to be. It's about a boy who befriends a mischievous spirit. "Yamaba" is a pretty generic story about some kind of evil spirit. "Peony Lamp" is a fairly decent story about a samurai and the ghost that loves him. "Heartbroken Trip" is a decent story about a woman who goes to a haunted hot springs. "Lost Souls" was pretty spooky, but confusing.

I should point out that this DVD isn't dubbed; it uses subtitles. I would have liked the DVD if the subtitles weren't so crappy. They aren't at the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" level of Engrish, but they sure were pretty bad in spots.

With the sub-par subtitles, and the varying quality of the stories, I give J-Horror Anthology: Legends three and a half yo-yos.