We’ve learned the sad news this afternoon that Japanese filmmaker Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, known to horror fans as the director of 1977’s Hausu, has passed away at the age of 82.

Ôbayashi had been battling lung cancer for the past several years.

Hausu (aka House) was Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s feature length debut as a director, and it was produced by Japanese company Toho. As explained on the film’s Wikipedia, “Toho approached Obayashi with the suggestion to make a film like Jaws. Influenced by ideas from his daughter Chigumi, Obayashi developed ideas for a script that was written by Chiho Katsura.”

The truly singular haunted house movie was released by the Criterion Collection in 2010.

Ôbayashi subsequently directed nearly 50 feature films throughout his career, including The Visitor in the Eye, Take Me Away!, The Little Girl Who Conquered Time, The Deserted City, Lonelyheart, The Drifting Classroom, The Discarnates, Turning Point, I Want to Hear the Wind’s Song, The Last Snow, The Reason, Seven Weeks and most recently, Labyrinth of Cinema.