Date: 6 July 2004 Summary: The film starts well but ultimately disappoints
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.
company.
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