The “terrifying” Japanese horror movie adored by Martin Scorsese: “One of the very best”

Posted On October 23, 2025October 23, 2025

While we know that the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro love a bit of horror, it’s not often that we get the opinion of the American director Martin Scorsese when it comes to the films he thinks about when things go bump in the night.

Some directors have dabbled in lots of different genres, and one might argue Scorsese has done the same. Dipping his toes into the flowing mainstream from time to time, while still satisfying his thirst for crime action. But horror has rarely featured in his movies. In fact, the director has barely touched the genre throughout his filmography, aside from 2010’s dark thriller Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams. 

With that being said, it’s difficult for one of cinema’s greatest minds to have completely ignored one of the industry’s most beloved genres, with horror sneaking into many of his films in some shape or form. 1991’s creepy crime thriller Cape Fear certainly has shades of horror, and so does the dark psychological tale Bringing Out the Dead from 1999. Even as far back as Scorsese’s 1967 short film The Big Shave, which depicts a nasty bathroom accident, the director had horror on his mind, albeit not at the forefront. 

Back when Scorsese ran reviews for Direct TV, the director shone a spotlight on one of his favourite modern horror flicks, elevating the profile of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s peculiar 1997 crime tale, Cure. Far from a linear Hollywood horror, this Japanese tale is a twisted police drama that follows a baffled detective trying to get to the bottom of a string of gruesome murders, each enacted by people who were psychologically manipulated to kill. 

Speaking about the movie in a review written at the time, Scorsese noted: “This is one of the very best films by the extremely talented Kiyoshi Kurosawa.” Scorsese goes a few steps further and lavishes praise on the filmmaker, “He’s an absolute master of light, framing and pacing, and he has so much control over all three that there are moments in his movies when the slightest gesture in the corner of the frame will send a shiver down your spine”. 

As previously mentioned, Kurosawa’s film could certainly be described as a horror, but it operates on a number of different thematic levels, too, being a psychological thriller, complex human drama, and even dips into experimental arthouse cinema at some points. Never really getting to the very bottom of its central mystery, it is Kurosawa’s intention to disturb and unsettle, creating a film that is all the better for its ambiguity.

In agreement, Scorsese explains: “Kurosawa doesn’t exactly work in the horror genre. Rather, his films are filled with a strange dread. In many of them, something has arrived, no one knows exactly what or how or for what purpose: Reality is untouched except for a small, unsettling detail or two, which mutates into violence and irrationality”.

Describing the director, Kurosawa, as “a real student of cinema,” Scorsese states that he can recommend every movie he’s seen from the filmmaker, including 1999’s Charisma, 2000’s Séance and 2003’s Bright Future. “Along with Pulse, which is about ghosts on the Internet, Cure is his most terrifying movie,” Scorsese adds, “There are startling images and moments in this picture that will haunt you for a long time to come, and I suppose I should say that it’s not for the faint of heart. But be brave, because it’s worth it. Kurosawa is a major filmmaker”. 

Now, will Cure find its way onto your local “scariest movie of all time” list? No. But should it still be considered among the more terrifying releases worth watching this year. Scorsese knows a thing or two about what makes a great film, and he has once again proven that with a cracking suggestion.

Take a look at the trailer for the critically acclaimed horror thriller below.

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