u-on (呪怨 Juon?, lit. Curse Grudge) is the title of a series of Japanese horror films, created by Takashi Shimizu. Shimizu attended the Film School of Tokyo, where he studied under Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Kurosawa helped Shimizu shepherd the Ju-on projects to fruition.[1]
The Ju-on movies revolve around a curse created in a house in Nerima, Tokyo when Takeo Saeki, convinced that his wife Kayako was having an affair with another man, murdered her, their son Toshio and Toshio's pet cat in a jealous fit. According to Ju-on, when a person dies with a deep and powerful rage, a curse is born. The curse gathers in the place where that person has died or where they were frequent at (in the series' case, the house in Nerima) and repeats itself there. The spirits of the Saeki family now haunt the house, killing anyone who encounters the curse by any means, such as entering the house or being in contact with somebody who was already cursed. The curse's manifestation is mainly death, where the victims' bodies may or may not disappear. The following deaths may create more curses and spread them to other locations.
The franchise consists, to date, of six films alongside several tie-in and merchandise products.