I got this film from a friend who bought it (and its sequel) on holiday in Malaysia.
I'm not a horror fan, in fact I pretty much hate horror films because they are never scary, just cheap with gore thrown in to make up for the lack of legitimate scares.
Despite this I enjoyed Ringu (and hated the sequel) so I watched this. The story is about a haunted house in Tokyo in where every visitor ends up dead or goes missing at the hands of a creepy white ghost kid and its mother (also a ghost).
The appearances of these ghosts stem from a family who lived in the house until the father killed his wife and their child. Now the house is cursed and any one who goes in ends up dead.
The story is chapter based much like Pulp Fiction and tells the story of each character who enters the house. This works well for the first 45 minutes of the film. Each character meets a creepy demise and you get a spooky feeling from just watching these characters that appear to be safe nowhere from the two ghosts. Unfortunately the last 45 minutes see the chapters become nothing more than disjointed and confusing. The final chapter is so surreal its ridiculous and makes no sense. To say this film loses its way is an understatement.
The story is left open ended and while some may argue that this is to allow the viewer to interpret what has happened I say it is due to the writer and directors inability to wrap up what could have been on of the best ghost stories ever made.
In the films defence the ghosts of Toshio and his mother are very unnerving, especially Toshio, considering they are just people painted white. Toshio has these big black eyes and remains silent throughout the film. Put simply he just looks plain weird, appearing from out of nowhere to scare the character out of their wits.
Films never scare me but for some reason every time the kid was on the screen I felt cold shivers. The film is probably worth watching for this feeling alone and the first 45 minutes are excellent although ultimately you'll be disappointed with the ending.
The sequel is better but strangely loses its way at more or less the same point in the film as the first and ends in much the same manner. It just gives more of an 'ending' that the first film lacks.
I'm not a horror fan, in fact I pretty much hate horror films because they are never scary, just cheap with gore thrown in to make up for the lack of legitimate scares.
Despite this I enjoyed Ringu (and hated the sequel) so I watched this. The story is about a haunted house in Tokyo in where every visitor ends up dead or goes missing at the hands of a creepy white ghost kid and its mother (also a ghost).
The appearances of these ghosts stem from a family who lived in the house until the father killed his wife and their child. Now the house is cursed and any one who goes in ends up dead.
The story is chapter based much like Pulp Fiction and tells the story of each character who enters the house. This works well for the first 45 minutes of the film. Each character meets a creepy demise and you get a spooky feeling from just watching these characters that appear to be safe nowhere from the two ghosts. Unfortunately the last 45 minutes see the chapters become nothing more than disjointed and confusing. The final chapter is so surreal its ridiculous and makes no sense. To say this film loses its way is an understatement.
The story is left open ended and while some may argue that this is to allow the viewer to interpret what has happened I say it is due to the writer and directors inability to wrap up what could have been on of the best ghost stories ever made.
In the films defence the ghosts of Toshio and his mother are very unnerving, especially Toshio, considering they are just people painted white. Toshio has these big black eyes and remains silent throughout the film. Put simply he just looks plain weird, appearing from out of nowhere to scare the character out of their wits.
Films never scare me but for some reason every time the kid was on the screen I felt cold shivers. The film is probably worth watching for this feeling alone and the first 45 minutes are excellent although ultimately you'll be disappointed with the ending.
The sequel is better but strangely loses its way at more or less the same point in the film as the first and ends in much the same manner. It just gives more of an 'ending' that the first film lacks.