Review by Frank Plowright

Another translation of Junji Ito’s chillers is always welcome, and Tombs supplies nine of them as originally issued in Japan in 2013, opening with the title story about a town where someone’s tombstone is placed where they die. It’s spooky enough to have to dodge them when driving, but they’re also erected in houses. Yet that’s not half the horror, and as the young woman visiting her friend has a guilty secret even before arriving, Ito signposts where things are heading. However, he’s smart enough to generate tension via sympathy for basically decent people who’ve taken a wrong turn, before dropping a killer ending.

There are fantastic elements in Ito’s stories, but they’re all grounded in a recognisable reality of terrible things happening to ordinary people. The scenery and urban locations could be in your area if you live in Japan as Ito’s depictions are full and meticulously drawn. Could there really be a girl whose tongue is turning into a slug living next door to you? When the horror occurs, Ito’s art hits another level. Eyes bulge, veins manifest, skin pustulates and mouths are agape in silent screams before surreal and unsettling illustrations like the sample art, which is from the shortest story, so not a major spoiler.

Revelations and endings are both horrific and hilarious, leaving no doubt of Ito’s very dark sense of humour, which tends to manifest more on the shorter stories. The longer selections run to around fifty pages, and it’s where Ito investigates themes other than the shock of the different. ‘The Strange Case of the Tunnel’ typifies the approach, with Goro always haunted by tunnels because as a child he watched his mother walk into a dark railway tunnel and die. It involves malicious children scaring each other with gruesome stories and Goro’s younger sister hearing voices compelling her to enter a tunnel. It’s masterfully constructed, building to a terrible revelation.

Ito doesn’t bother with logical foundations explaining the unknown. It’s unknown, and that’s terror enough, and with everything that’s crawling around his imagination would you really want time wasted on explaining how a corpse speaks or how floating seeds capture thoughts? The effect is all.

While much of what’s here is first rate terror, and the creative variety astonishing, there is an occasional story that just doesn’t hit the mark, and sometimes the endings are too rushed. Compared with what’s good, though, these are minor complaints, and as ever, you won’t sleep easy after an Ito collection.