Noroi

Noroi (The Curse) is a 2005 Japanese horror film made in the form of a mockumentary. It describes Masafumi Kobayashi, a paranormal expert who produced a series of books and movies on supernatural activity around Japan. He disappeared in the process of making his greatest and most disturbing film yet, The Curse. This film has not been seen much out of Japan, and is pretty lengthy at 2 hours.

I've just finished watching Noroi on Youtube. Let me warn you, if J-horror movies like Dark Water, Ringu or Ju-On gave you a bad scare, this movie will utterly mind-rape you and is a lot more disturbing. What makes Noroi so engagingly spine-chilling is the fact that the entire film is shot with a hand-held camera, and any shocking footage looks VERY real, hence a lot more disturbing. If you're a fan of watching reality shows or documentaries about the paranormal, Noroi is DEFINITELY for you.

And unlike similar western films, such as The Blair Witch Project, Noroi unabashedly reveals what was lurking in the darkness and any fucked-up imagery that the characters were seeing at the time. Noroi does a great job in creating an eerie atmosphere of fear from both creepy music and voices and strange paranormal phenomenon. In some scenes, you KNOW you're about the see something REALLY fucked-up, but morbid curiosity takes over and you just can't seem to look away.

Like most J-horror films, the plot can be rather scattered and shown in different time intervals. You'll find a hard time linking anything together and the different events don't seem to be related at all, but it won't really matter. Inevitably, everything begins to piece together in the second-half of the film. And the ending...really sums it up and will prove to be very shocking. The story and concept is both unique and outstanding. The cast were really excellent and believable to the point that it makes you wonder if this is really a film, or did it really happen in real life.

While J-horror films have a tendency to have some slow intervals throughout the film, there wasn't a dull moment in Noroi. From beginning till the end, it just grabs you and feeds your hunger to know what the hell is really going on. The only complaint I have is that some of the questions that were left unanswered but that's just a minor flaw to me. The entire movie definitely made up for it. Kudos to the Koji Shiraishi for this creation.

Leave it to the Japs to create really messed up horror. Noroi can give you some seriously disturbing chills and you might have trouble sleeping at night. I just hope the US doesn't suddenly get a hold of this and decide to make a crappy remake to ruin it.