Tag Archives for " haunted house "
December 6, 2019
- in film essay by Scott Murphy
NHE’s Modern Horror Classics: Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)
Even now if you ask people to name a Japanese horror film, if they know any at all, the most likely answer you would get is either this film or Ringu. Both of which were the most popular films of the early 00s J-Horror craze. Not that necessarily makes this film one of the best as many would consider Ju-on: The Grudge to be weaker than some other such as Ringu or Pulse (Kairo) for example. While that maybe there are still many memorable and you can certainly see the films appeal.
The curious thing about Ju-on: The Grudge is that this is actually the third entry in a long-running franchise created by director Takashi Shimizu which is still going to this day and was also the first in the franchise to get a cinematic release. You may assume that you when need to see the first two entries (Ju-on: The Curse and Ju-on: The Curse 2) to view this one, but you do not necessarily. As all of the films work both as part of the franchise and as individual films. The connecting factor being the haunted house of the deceased Saeki family. According to the film's mythology, a curse was created after Takeo Saeki (Takashi Matsuyama) murdered his wife Kayako (Takako Fuji), son Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) and the family cat in a jealous rage after finding out Kayako had a crush on another man. This curse follows anybody who enters the house and also turned Kayako into a vengeful spirit and the franchise's central antagonist.
Like all of the films in the Ju-on series Ju-on: The Grudge does not have a plot per se but is instead told in a series of loosely connected vignettes. Confusing matters further, these vignettes do not unfold in chronological order, so you always have to think where you are in the narrative timeline. In the first of these vignettes, we follow Rika (Megumi Okina) as she is sent to Saeki house as a carer for a senior woman. Rika, as it turns out, is the films nominal lead as she appears in more than one of the vignettes unlike most of the other characters.
Each of the vignettes run in roughly the same order with characters ending up in the cursed house for one reason or other, the curse then following with the back home or at work or whatever and then spreading to other characters they encounter before being bumped off by Kayako’s spirit. All of which makes the film sound very formulaic and a bit boring. The former is true as Shimizu has created a blueprint for these films and is very much sticking. The latter, however, is not there is plenty here to hold your attention as there is plenty of tension here to keep you hooked into the story and Shimizu maintains a profoundly creepy atmosphere throughout proceedings.
Arguably the scares have lost some of their initial power as audiences are more familiar with the chalk-faced, twitchy, clicky ghosts that populate many a J-Horror but there is still stuff to get under your skin on the evidence here. Notably in scenes such as the one where Kayako come spider-like out a room and stalks one of the characters down the stairs in the old Saeko home or the scene where you see another set of hands in the back of Rika’s head when she is showering. Also the horrendous croaking noise Kayako is just as unsettling now as when the film was released.
Not all the jumps work, and some of the fake-out (generally cat-based) scares are more funny than scary, but the horror set-ups along with the atmosphere are where the movie, and by extension, the franchise is at its strongest. As discussed there are plenty of weaknesses too as well as the ones already mentioned it would be fair to say there is little in the way of character development and the acting is of variable quality. The movie is also guilty of the Hollywood studio horror thing of laying on the musical cues thick to signpost this is going to be a scary bit, get ready to be scared now!
These were all flaws that critics at the time pounced on, and despite its rather stellar reputation as a horror fan favourite it received decidedly mixed reviews with a current Metacritic score of 48 and an RT score of 64%.
Inevitably for any popular non-English language horror film, there was a remake, just called The Grudge, made in 2004, which is actually the same year Ju-on: The Grudge got its official UK and US release. Unusually the Sarah Michelle Gellar starring remake did not relocate the action to somewhere in the States but is still set in Tokyo. The lack of location was not the only unusual thing about the remake as the director of the remake is none other than Takashi Shimizu. The other curious about the remake is that basically a facsimile of Ju-on: The Grudge with the main difference being the English speaking cast. So if you have seen The Grudge, you have essentially seen this movie.
Shimizu also went to direct a sequel to both this movie and the English language. Confusingly unlike the original and its remake Ju-on: The Grudge 2 and The Grudge 2 have separate storylines although they do follow the same non-linear chapter based. After four Ju-on movies and two American ones, The Grudge movies Shimizu left the franchise but it very much rolled on without him as there was another direct-to-DVD American sequel released in 2009 as well another five entries in the original Japanese series. The last of these entries being 2016’s Sadako vs. Kayako which sees the antagonists of both the Ring and Ju-on franchises face off in a movie that started life as internet joke and was met with a mixed to poor reaction upon release. If you thought that is the end of The Grudge franchise though think again as there is an English language reboot set to hit screens early next month. Proof, if proof were needed, you can never keep a horror franchise down for long.
November 25, 2019
- by Scott Murphy
Episode 39 – Paddy Murphy
NHE host Scott Murphy talks to our first Irish guest and fellow Murphy in director Paddy Murphy who we chat with about his second feature, “The Perished,” which made it is World Premiere at Frightfest back in August. Not that was the only film he had there as he also directed a segment in the horror anthology, “We are the Many.”
In the interview, we talk about a little bit about the latter and Paddy’s Frightfest experience, but the bulk of the conversation focuses on “The Perished.” From what inspired to write the film to how he brought his cast together (which includes several previous collaborators) to how they achieved the creature effects on the film. We also get into the movie’s heavy themes focusing as it does of the thorny issue of abortion in Ireland. Plus, what the atmosphere was like on set given those themes.
In other chat Paddy and Scott talk about how festival screenings can skew your viewing experiences for good or ill, other festivals Paddy is eyeing up for “The Perished” and a little bit of the movie he is working on next.
Watch “The Perished” trailer here
October 24, 2018
- in film reviews by Scott Murphy
Review: The Witch in the Window
Director: Andy Mitton
Starring: Alex Draper, Charlie Tacker, Arija Bareikis, Carol Stanzione
Run Time: 77mins
“Witch in The Window” is Andy Mitton’s first solo directorial feature after previously making “YellowBrickRoad” and “We Go On” with his screen collaborator Jesse Holland. Much like those films, this film has picked up plaudits on the festival circuit after premiering at Fantasia Fest in July. The movie also sees Mitton reunite with actor Alex Draper who is a long-time acquaintance of Mitton’s and one of the stars of “YellowBrickRoad.”
The plot focuses on Draper’s character divorced dad Simon who takes his twelve-year-old son Finn (Tacker) on a trip to fix up a house he has bought to flip in rural Vermont. However, it is not too long before they hear of the previous owner who died there Lydia who was believed to be a witch by her neighbours. Of course, as this is a horror movie soon after creepy things start to happen.
That said while there is no doubt this a horror movie this is not your straightforward haunted house tale. For one the film is as much a family drama as it is a horror. As the central narrative is about an absentee father trying to reconnect with his son, a plot that could easily tip into lazy sentimentally but instead is beautifully built up here. A good part of this is to do with the acting both from Draper and Tacker who both create rounded, believable characters. Even if Finn initially does come off as your stereotypical sullen adolescent.
The movie also wrong-foots the viewer as most of the jumps and scares happen in the daytime instead of at night. Talking of the jumps and scares these are sparsely peppered throughout the films short running time. Probably too sparsely for quite a few horror fans. Even fans of slow-burn horror may find themselves wanting a few more jumps to have been thrown into the mix. The jumps there are though are well-executed.
While the movie is low on jumps, it is high on atmosphere. There is a certain claustrophobia about the film as we are rarely away from the house and everything about the house is made to feel sinister. Also, Lydia (Carol Stanzione) is a creepily effective villain. There is also a sequence towards the end where the film really lets loose which is very well done, but part of you wishes there had been a tad more of that in what is otherwise an impressive movie.
Overall: Some may quibble about the number of scares, but this slow-burn tale comes with great atmosphere, believable characters and an interesting spin on the old haunted house set-up.
7/10
Now Available on Shudder
March 21, 2018
- in film reviews by Scott Murphy
Review: Veronica
Director: Paco Plaza
Starring: Sandra Escacena, Bruna González, Claudia Placer, Ivan Chavero
Running Time: 105mins
When a movie comes along that is dubbed as the “scariest movie ever” it is often met with understandable eye rolls from horror fans as this is something that seems to happen once every couple of years and often these are a) Far from the scariest movie ever and b) Frequently not even that good. This why when I came to watch “Veronica” it was with such trepidation as it has been hyped up in this way ever since it hit the Toronto Film Festival last September (although it came out in its native Spain the month before). I did have some hope though, given the directorial pedigree of Paco Plaza who has already delivered one of the great horror movies of the 21st Century so far in the form of [REC].
The film is loosely based on the real story of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro, a teenager, who died mysteriously mere months after playing with Ouija board back in the early 90’s. The thing that makes this case even more exceptional is the policeman on the case alleged to have witnessed paranormal events during his investigations and it is the only time in Spanish history such phenomena has been written into an official police report.
As mentioned the film only takes inspiration from this story and does not draw directly from it. Instead the film tells the story of Veronica (Sandra Escacena) who is one of four siblings, the other three of which she mainly looks after due to her mother’s long working hours. The trouble starts for her when she, along two friends, conducts a séance with a Ouija board, in the basement of their school’s basement. The impetus behind this being the hope she can make contact with her deceased father. The scene in which this unfold is incredibly effective as the girls choose to do this while the rest of the school are out looking at an eclipse and the cutting between the séance and the eclipse gives it that extra layer of foreboding.
Predictably the girls do not make contact with Veronica’s dad but do unleash evil forces that only our protagonist can see and soon seem to haunting her house as well as her dreams. None of which sound like anything horror fans have not seen many times before and it isn’t but some of the best horrors, or films in general, are the ones that can make old hat material seem fresh or give it their own particular spin and this is exactly what this movie does.
That said not everything totally works; for example there is a blinding smoking nun character who gives our protagonist cryptic doomy warnings throughout the movie. Now while she is an entertaining character it also, maybe, just that bit too over-ripe and OTT for a movie that seems to be generally aiming for an unsettling, grounded tone.
Aside from this OTT element and the odd genre clichés there is little to complain about this piece of cinema and what really makes the movie sing is characterisation. Sandra Escacena is excellent in the title role and the character herself seems fully formed and you quickly immerse yourself into her world. Also the relationship between her and her two sisters Lucia (Bruna González) and Irene (Claudia Placer) and brother Antonito (Ivan Chavero) is beautifully drawn. The believability of their sibling bond also makes it all the more heart-breaking and tense when the ghosts/ evil spirits look to be coming after not just Veronica but her brother and sisters too. To say anymore would be to spoil the film and we would not want that now so I shall say no more on the story. I will however say other things that really bring the movie to life is the interesting use of traditional creepy horror music and 80’s synth horror music, the excellent cinematography and strong directing.
In the end is this the “scariest movie ever?” No, no it is not but is this a movie that is an early contender for horror movie of the year? Yes it most certainly is.