His research focuses on the history of the horror film genre in Japan during the prewar and early postwar eras. Professor Crandol’s interest in Japanese horror was sparked by a lifelong love of classic B-grade monster movies, as well as the literary and folkloric traditions behind the monsters that inhabit them. He is currently working on an article about Suzuki Sumiko, Japan’s first horror film star, while also preparing his doctoral dissertation for publication as a book that will offer both a social history of the horror film in Japan as well as a theory of horror cinema that accounts for culturally diverse understandings of the supernatural and horrific.