R.I.P. author Koji Suzuki, who jumpstarted the J-horror subgenre with his Ring series

Japanese novelist Koji Suzuki has died. He's best known for his contributions to the horror genre, specifically his 1991 novel Ring, a bestseller that launched a Japanese film adaptation, 1998's terrifying Ringu, and a 2002 American version, The Ring, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts. Suzuki was sometimes referred to as "the Japanese Stephen King" and is also considered the godfather of J-horror. Suzuki's death was reported over the weekend in Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper. He was 68.

Suzuki was born in Hamamatsu, Japan and published his first novel, the fantasy romance Paradise, in 1990. The next year, he followed it up with Ring, inspired by a mental image of several teenagers dropping dead at the same time, even though they weren't in the same place. From there, the idea of a haunted video tape and a deadly ghost became the famous novel. By the time his book was adapted, it had already sold half a million copies. Hideo Nakata's Ringu kept the surreal elements of the author's novel but added what would become an iconic image in late 20th Century horror- the ghost Sadako crawling out of a TV set to claim her victims. This pushed the novel even more into the mainstream. This creepy image was later used by Verbinski in his 2002 American remake.

Following the massive success of Ring, Suzuki published several sequels, including Spiral, Loop, Birthday, S, and Tide. However, Suzuki didn't want to feel limited to just writing ghost stories. These sequels are complicated and include aspects of scientific thinking, such as theories about viruses and supercomputers, deepening and even breaking the rules created in the initial novel about haunted media. In a 2004 interview with The New York Times, the author joked about the series' increasingly complicated rules and sequels. "It's a little like the virus idea of The Ring itself. It just keeps getting replicated, and I have no control over it," he said.

Suzuki continued to have a prolific career as a writer, and Hollywood continued bringing his tales to the big screen. For instance, the 2005 Jennifer Connelly film Dark Water is based on one of his short stories and hoped to capitalize on The Ring's huge success. Additionally, his story "Adrift" was also made into a film in 2006.

Suzuki's final novel, Ubiquitous, was published last year. An English translation is reportedly in the works, though nothing official has been announced yet.

The Horror Lounge mourns the passing of such an influential author and his undeniable contributions to the horror genre.