Hello, famed director Koji Shiraishi! It's been a while. I see you're back to your old tricks again.
In the past year, Koji Shiraishi has become one of my favorite directors, consistently punching above his own weight class with low budget masterpieces, doing as much to connect with the religious and mythic roots of horror as any number of "prestige horror" flicks, often filled with violent misanthropy and misogyny, with effects that are always cheap and fine-tuned to the intended effect, whether that's laughter, horror, or (very often) both. Although some of that remains true here, this movie is pretty high-rent compared to his usual films. That might be a problem for some viewers, but I was able to overcome it, and I had an absolute fucking blast.
THE KUDO METHOD IS IN THIS MOVIE IT'S IN THIS MOVIE
One really phenomenal element borrowed from earlier films is the linguistic drift, this singular divine name shifting and changing into different names over time. It's very pronounced and elegantly pulled off in this film, I think.
I loved it. It's not my favorite Shiraishi, although neither is Noroi. My favorite is a Senritsu Kaiki film. But this ranks, for sure. Ending is just as bleak as it gets for Shiraishi films, I think.
"I'm really on a roll here." "Well, that's nice for a change."
Hello, famed director Koji Shiraishi! It's been a while. I see you're back to your old tricks again.
In the past year, Koji Shiraishi has become one of my favorite directors, consistently punching above his own weight class with low budget masterpieces, doing as much to connect with the religious and mythic roots of horror as any number of "prestige horror" flicks, often filled with violent misanthropy and misogyny, with effects that are always cheap and fine-tuned to the intended effect, whether that's laughter, horror, or (very often) both. Although some of that remains true here, this movie is pretty high-rent compared to his usual films. That might be a problem for some viewers, but I was able to overcome it, and I had an absolute fucking blast.
THE KUDO METHOD IS IN THIS MOVIE IT'S IN THIS MOVIE
One really phenomenal element borrowed from earlier films is the linguistic drift, this singular divine name shifting and changing into different names over time. It's very pronounced and elegantly pulled off in this film, I think.
I loved it. It's not my favorite Shiraishi, although neither is Noroi. My favorite is a Senritsu Kaiki film. But this ranks, for sure. Ending is just as bleak as it gets for Shiraishi films, I think.
"I'm really on a roll here." "Well, that's nice for a change."
