“snip, snip, snip..."
ventured more into japanese action-horror, and honestly discovered a really amazing hidden gem. it took me about an hour to actually find this movie to begin with, but i realised it’s on tubi in america so just managed to watch it with a vpn!! i think the main reason why this movie was so great, is its just complete campiness and its unique vibe highly resonant to a survival ps2 video game (aka, the best types of games which are unfortunately slowly dying out). i’ve honestly never seen a movie that just feels so much like your playing a video game, from its separate scenarios to its item combinations. the narrative is disjointed, and goes in complete different timelines and perspectives from one scene to another, exploring all the characters experiences in this bizarre nightmare land. the idea of a hotel being infested with grotesque creatures who sacrifice women to their god, and women being drawn in with cheap prices and sketchy posters is just bizarre, but also really effective: lacking realism, but fuelled with originality. i was slighly disappointed when the protagonist wasn’t dressed in lolita fashion from the cover, but she makes a fantastic gothic lolita serial killer who hunts down one of the girls with comically oversized scissors, the fight is both intense and humorous, and that character in particular was immaculate. it blends the psychological dread with comedy-action-horror so well, it is effectively serious but in the same breath uses loads of dark humour that balances it all out, making it even more fun. finally, the visuals are beautiful. the misty, foggy mountains, to its vibrant spring and set design. the visuals have a nice surreal look about them, and it’s insane how underrated this one is to be honest. the characters are surprisingly well developed, and both girls just had so much chemistry, they should’ve just kissed lmao. i would totally watch this again, it’s super stylised which i love, but it uses its cinematography and score to actually evoke some genuine fear, and im not gonna say this was really ‘scary’ in a traditional sense, but is unironically scarier than 90% of other horror i’ve seen.
“snip, snip, snip..."
ventured more into japanese action-horror, and honestly discovered a really amazing hidden gem. it took me about an hour to actually find this movie to begin with, but i realised it’s on tubi in america so just managed to watch it with a vpn!! i think the main reason why this movie was so great, is its just complete campiness and its unique vibe highly resonant to a survival ps2 video game (aka, the best types of games which are unfortunately slowly dying out). i’ve honestly never seen a movie that just feels so much like your playing a video game, from its separate scenarios to its item combinations. the narrative is disjointed, and goes in complete different timelines and perspectives from one scene to another, exploring all the characters experiences in this bizarre nightmare land. the idea of a hotel being infested with grotesque creatures who sacrifice women to their god, and women being drawn in with cheap prices and sketchy posters is just bizarre, but also really effective: lacking realism, but fuelled with originality. i was slighly disappointed when the protagonist wasn’t dressed in lolita fashion from the cover, but she makes a fantastic gothic lolita serial killer who hunts down one of the girls with comically oversized scissors, the fight is both intense and humorous, and that character in particular was immaculate. it blends the psychological dread with comedy-action-horror so well, it is effectively serious but in the same breath uses loads of dark humour that balances it all out, making it even more fun. finally, the visuals are beautiful. the misty, foggy mountains, to its vibrant spring and set design. the visuals have a nice surreal look about them, and it’s insane how underrated this one is to be honest. the characters are surprisingly well developed, and both girls just had so much chemistry, they should’ve just kissed lmao. i would totally watch this again, it’s super stylised which i love, but it uses its cinematography and score to actually evoke some genuine fear, and im not gonna say this was really ‘scary’ in a traditional sense, but is unironically scarier than 90% of other horror i’ve seen.
