Horror comedy is tricky to get right: Skin-crawling scares tend to undercut the knee-slapping gags and vice versa.
Koji Shiraishi’s “House of Sayuri” finds a partial solution in Japan’s ero-guro (erotic and grotesque) artistic genre, which shades its humor pitch-black to match the darkness of the deeds on display.
Not that there’s much erotica in the story, based on a horror manga by Rensuke Oshikiri, though it does toss in a sweet-spirited teen romance.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.