The basic idea isn't too bad, but the movie fails in execution. The pace appears to be intentionally slow, but too many scenes drag. Most potential moments of shock are wasted by bad timing. Rather too much of the story is told prematurely and superfluously by the voice-over, and quite possibly its scope is too wide, grappling not only with the philosophical question of what happens after death, but also introducing the threat of utter apocalypse by homicidal ghosts, on top of the mad scientist theme. The main ghost looks a little bit too much like the Ringu one, and there's too much of Evil Dead style camera prowling through the paranormally plagued forest. However, the ending isn't as bad as the completely disastrous one looming just minutes before the end. Technically, this movie is lacking in many respects, and there are better Japanese technophobia horror movies out there.
3 Reviews
Everything thats wrong with J-horror movie (especially those made for TV)
dbborroughs28 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This review contains spoiler-I tell you what happens)
Crappy J-horror TV movie that's 75 minutes (thats 55 minutes too many) long about a girl who gets an email from a missing friend. When she and another friend go to investigate they find themselves meeting ghosts and "involved"an experiment that is trying to see whats on the other side of life. Long, slow "meaningful" in all the wrong ways this just drones on with an occasional out of focus shot of a long haired female ghost. Nothing happens. Actually nothing happens that needs 75 minutes to tell. This might have worked in a half hour on the twilight zone or less in the later series which had short stories.
Oh heck I'm going to save you the time- the friend is dead killed by the guy friend and she's calling them for revenge. The ghost machine allowed it but there are ghosts in the machine and they are using the machine to have everyone cross over...or not because the last shot makes it possible that something else was going on.. or not.
Look this stinks...and I had to say that because people need to be warned-this is everything people hate about J- horror.
Crappy J-horror TV movie that's 75 minutes (thats 55 minutes too many) long about a girl who gets an email from a missing friend. When she and another friend go to investigate they find themselves meeting ghosts and "involved"an experiment that is trying to see whats on the other side of life. Long, slow "meaningful" in all the wrong ways this just drones on with an occasional out of focus shot of a long haired female ghost. Nothing happens. Actually nothing happens that needs 75 minutes to tell. This might have worked in a half hour on the twilight zone or less in the later series which had short stories.
Oh heck I'm going to save you the time- the friend is dead killed by the guy friend and she's calling them for revenge. The ghost machine allowed it but there are ghosts in the machine and they are using the machine to have everyone cross over...or not because the last shot makes it possible that something else was going on.. or not.
Look this stinks...and I had to say that because people need to be warned-this is everything people hate about J- horror.
Had GREAT potential, but due to lame execution,... However, it's still well worth watching for fans of the genre
rageinblack5 September 2005
I think that this movie is well worth watching, even if it's a Japanese ghost low budget B-movie.
It has a pretty interesting story, surprising twists, but it's quite short, and the camera isn't too good, neither the directing. But it's the concept of the plot itself that I find amusing, although the story should be much more in depth, especially about the machine system part, because it gives us no clue of how it works...The atmosphere is great, the facility looks creepy because it's abandoned and it's located in the middle of the woods.
Another thing that I didn't like was the introduction, it's way too long and unnecessary, as I said before, this movie it's quite short (01:13 with credits), so it could have done excellent without the introduction and by going more in-depth... It's a pity because if done better, it could have been a really great movie, speaking in terms of Ju-on, Ringu, Dark Water... The ghosts weren't that scary too, they seemed like perfectly normal people to me, or maybe a bit disturbed :) And the sound they emitted was rather annoying than scary but... Don't get me wrong, after all it's flaws this movie it's something special to watch for the fans of the genre, of course.
It has a pretty interesting story, surprising twists, but it's quite short, and the camera isn't too good, neither the directing. But it's the concept of the plot itself that I find amusing, although the story should be much more in depth, especially about the machine system part, because it gives us no clue of how it works...The atmosphere is great, the facility looks creepy because it's abandoned and it's located in the middle of the woods.
Another thing that I didn't like was the introduction, it's way too long and unnecessary, as I said before, this movie it's quite short (01:13 with credits), so it could have done excellent without the introduction and by going more in-depth... It's a pity because if done better, it could have been a really great movie, speaking in terms of Ju-on, Ringu, Dark Water... The ghosts weren't that scary too, they seemed like perfectly normal people to me, or maybe a bit disturbed :) And the sound they emitted was rather annoying than scary but... Don't get me wrong, after all it's flaws this movie it's something special to watch for the fans of the genre, of course.
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