Strange Pictures

Japanese horror often emphasizes the darkness that can lurk within the everyday things people take for granted. Strange Pictures incorporates this as a motif that runs throughout the story. Over and over, seemingly ordinary people reveal themselves to be hiding a threatening side, conventional activities turn out to be terribly dangerous, and apparently benign objects hide horrific secrets.

Many everyday objects in the story turn out to be something much darker than they appear. Yuki’s blood pressure medication turns out to be salt pills that spike her blood pressure and ultimately contribute to her death. Raku’s blog has a cheerful, innocent tone, but it hides a terrible secret. Six-year-old Yuta’s drawing of his apartment building hides a drawing of his mother’s grave. Miura’s drawing of a beautiful mountainside view is secretly a cover-up of his wife’s involvement in his murder.

Miura’s trip up the mountainside is an example of an ordinary activity that turns out to be deadly. He is simply trying to hike, camp, and enjoy nature, but he ends up getting brutally murdered. Yuki’s pregnancy is another example of this. She is overjoyed and excited about becoming a mother, but she ends up dying in childbirth.