Cure

This movie did something strange I never felt before… I put Cure on not knowing anything about it besides the 4.3 average. It was late at night, I was cozy, and the world crafted in this movie was slowly putting me in a trance. About halfway through I almost fell asleep and felt so scared at the same time that I decided to turn it off and go to sleep. The next day I decided to try again, this time with more energy than before, and better commitment with my attention. I restarted it and fully submitted my consciousness to the movie, and by the end I was completely under its spell. The essence of Cure is so hypnotic and surreal, its literal DNA is haunting, and confusingly disturbing. It spends its time trying to uncover the secrets of hypnotism while hypnotizing the viewer at the same time, it’s fucking insane??? Something this movie understands very well is that in order to captivate the viewer, you must focus on the looping, droning, permeating sounds that fill the air and the empty screen space with dread. It’s not just the score, it’s also the environment. Kiyoshi Kurosawa induces fear into the most mundane little things. The sounds of waves crashing feel more threatening than peaceful. The sound of a washing machine becomes stressful rather than normal. Pair this with dreamy (more like nightmarish) imagery and you have the perfect recipe for constant tension. The efficiency and skill shown off in the filmmaking really makes me want to visit his other movies, heard lots of good about Pulse. This entire cast by the way… wow absolutely amazing and the villain is brilliant in every way. He’s cold, seems innocent, and holds layers of evil under his skin. Throughout the movie, he shows little hints here and there of his actual purpose it’s so scary and so real. I could not have been more terrified of him, a true representation of evil. Bravo 👏 I could go on, this is without a doubt a 10/10