What is it? - 1998 J-Horror film, launched a new wave of the genre leading to films like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse and Shimizu's The Grudge. Also interestingly released around the same time as The Blair Witch Project, starting the lofi, more restrained school of horror running parallel with the maximalist violence of films like Final Destination or Saw. The film later had a few sequels and an American remake, The Ring.
Looking for something that isn’t there, the horror of the sea, staring at the beautiful crashing waves, maybe something is wrong, maybe there’s something terrible underneath, but what’s worse is what your mind conjures. Interesting how this was the movie that kicked off the J-Horror craze when it’s so obsessive about not directly showing anything horrifying, but that’s also exactly what makes it tick. The rules of the videotape lead to a constant countdown for the police procedural, a perpetual dreary mood overlaying the main duo’s race against time, the suffocation of inevitability envelops the film. The ending reveal is haunting — you would pass the curse on too, if you knew how. The cycle will always continue.
LENGTH - 96 minutes
SCORE - 7.7/10