Japanese horror is getting the all-star treatment. Kurosawa Kiyoshi and “Ju-on” director Shimizu Takashi are among the seven filmmakers behind “Night Tales Club,” a six-part Japanese supernatural anthology series set to premiere on Disney+ and Hulu in January 2027.
Yamada Takayuki leads the series as Hojo, a high-flying businessman fixated on the unexplained who serves as its storyteller. Each episode adapts a different tale from author Sawamura Ichi’s collection of short horror stories — and Sawamura himself adapted the material for the screen.
Night Tales Club (Credits: Variety)
A Dream Lineup of Horror Masters
The director roster reads like a J-horror hall of fame. Kurosawa, whose credits include the chilling classics “Cure” and “Wife of a Spy,” and Shimizu, the mind behind “Ju-on” and “The Inugami Family,” each helm one episode. They are joined by Katayama Shinzo (“Gannibal,” “The Human Vapor”), Sode Yukiko (“Aristocrats,” “All the Lovers in the Night”), Sakashita Yuichiro (“I Can’t Cry With Your Face,” “Blonde”) and Nakamura Yosuke (“Higuma!!,” “Poison Girl”). Nakajima Kenji (“The Naked Director,” “Tokyo Swindlers”) directs the framing sequences built around Yamada’s character.
The project is produced by Wakabayashi Yusuke and Yamamoto Teruhisa, and Disney+ Japan has already released a teaser trailer.
The ¥20 Million Bounty for Proof of the Paranormal
At the center of the series is Hojo, a wealthy entrepreneur convinced that ghosts, curses and other paranormal events are “bugs” — glitches pointing to a hidden conspiracy. To prove his theory, he offers JPY20 million (about $126,000) in gold to anyone willing to come to his gathering, the Night Tales Club, and present a firsthand account of the supernatural along with proof.
Six such accounts make up the series, with Hojo chasing the truth behind each one as the connecting thread. It is a clever anthology engine: every episode is a self-contained scare, while Hojo’s obsessive investigation builds the larger mystery.
From Page to Screen
Sawamura, who wrote the scripts from his own collection, could not hide his excitement: “As the original author of these stories, I feel an enormous sense of surprise and joy that they will soon be available on screen to scare audiences around the world.”
The series continues Disney+’s aggressive expansion of its Japanese originals slate, which already includes “Gannibal” and “Land of Tanabata.” With this caliber of filmmaking talent and a January 2027 premiere, “Night Tales Club” is shaping up to be one of the most exciting horror events of the year.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
