One Missed Call
Horror enough that I'm likely to dig whatever I watch. For October, I elected not to do my directors challenge because I wanted to focus on spooky movies, but little did I know that all horror movies lead to Takashi Miike!
I have always wanted to watch this movie because the poster for the American remake scared the shit out of me as a kid, and I always wondered what the movies were about. I didn't know too much about them, but the original trilogy is on Shudder and seemed like it would be fun to check out sometime. Oh, and what fun I had!
I love how spooky this is. It's not too dissimilar to other J-Horror of the time, but I feel like this should be held in high regard alongside The Ring. This will be a big claim, but I think this is the first movie in a while to actually unnerve and scare me a bit. There's a certain spooky charm to curses, and this movie seems to have the most deadly curse I've seen. Even with a few more movies to go, I can't see how anyone could really beat what this curse is doing, and that makes it all the more terrifying.
Even our two leads, played excellently by Ko Shibasaki and Shinichi Tsutsumi, are having a tough time. This is on the longer side for horror movies, but I was fully engaged by the story and how those two began to work together to try and solve the mystery of the voice messages. In fact, I almost would say the pacing is a bit too brisk, and a lot of the build-up was spent cycling through other characters until we could get to Ko Shibasaki's character. This works well for the film, but I'm saying that I could have watched even more of the setup!
But, sadly, it's not all sunshine and rainbows up in the sky. This story is a bit convoluted, and even though I thought I was tracking the story pretty well, I have no idea what that ending was. I enjoy the weird nature of it, but I don't think it's doing the movie any favors by ending that abruptly. I'm fine with unclear endings, but I don't know what I'm supposed to feel. Oh well, at least that was a great song over the credits.
Overall, this was a very fun experience, and I think I will try to watch the other two in the trilogy, but I have quite a few fun spooky movies planned! I'll list them out tomorrow, I think.
I have always wanted to watch this movie because the poster for the American remake scared the shit out of me as a kid, and I always wondered what the movies were about. I didn't know too much about them, but the original trilogy is on Shudder and seemed like it would be fun to check out sometime. Oh, and what fun I had!
I love how spooky this is. It's not too dissimilar to other J-Horror of the time, but I feel like this should be held in high regard alongside The Ring. This will be a big claim, but I think this is the first movie in a while to actually unnerve and scare me a bit. There's a certain spooky charm to curses, and this movie seems to have the most deadly curse I've seen. Even with a few more movies to go, I can't see how anyone could really beat what this curse is doing, and that makes it all the more terrifying.
Even our two leads, played excellently by Ko Shibasaki and Shinichi Tsutsumi, are having a tough time. This is on the longer side for horror movies, but I was fully engaged by the story and how those two began to work together to try and solve the mystery of the voice messages. In fact, I almost would say the pacing is a bit too brisk, and a lot of the build-up was spent cycling through other characters until we could get to Ko Shibasaki's character. This works well for the film, but I'm saying that I could have watched even more of the setup!
But, sadly, it's not all sunshine and rainbows up in the sky. This story is a bit convoluted, and even though I thought I was tracking the story pretty well, I have no idea what that ending was. I enjoy the weird nature of it, but I don't think it's doing the movie any favors by ending that abruptly. I'm fine with unclear endings, but I don't know what I'm supposed to feel. Oh well, at least that was a great song over the credits.
Overall, this was a very fun experience, and I think I will try to watch the other two in the trilogy, but I have quite a few fun spooky movies planned! I'll list them out tomorrow, I think.
Mini Review: All horror movies lead to Takashi Miike! The American remake’s poster scared the shit out of me as a kid, so I finally checked out the original trilogy on Shudder. This deserves to stand alongside The Ring! The atmosphere is fantastic, and the deadly curse genuinely unnerved me. Ko Shibasaki and Shinichi Tsutsumi are both great. I could’ve watched more buildup! Unfortunately, the story gets convoluted, and abrupt ending left me confused. Still, what a fun experience! Time to watch the other two!