Director: Kôji Shiraishi
Year: 2024
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
After years of savings and sacrifice, a close-knit family is elated when their dream of owning a home in the countryside finally comes true, but when things turn violent and inexplicable accidents befall the family realize the ghost of a traumatized woman is haunting the house and try to appease it.
Review:
Generally, there's quite a lot to enjoy with the film. One of the best elements comes from a generally intriguing storyline that offers a slightly different take on the haunted house formula. The initial presentation of the family shows a well-familiar tale of a happy and excited family finally able to afford their first house and their children claiming rooms, adjusting to the increased space, and trying not to be spooked by the strangeness of their new surroundings. This setup works incredibly well to ground everyone in their roles easily enough so that the resulting scenario of the ghost's identity within the house helps with the later hauntings. The gradual discovery of the daughters' strange behavior that signals something is off within the house, as the accidents escalate from a more serious-minded approach to a wackier style of setpiece later on once the family decides to fight off the spirit. Having this be accomplished with the seemingly off-kilter Grandmother actually proving to be the sanest and most grounded character in the bizarre setup helps to make this all the more intriguing and is a great inversion of the expected tropes utilizing the traditional setups of the genre.
That allows for the use of both creepy and silly setpieces to come about throughout the film. The first instances where the older brother would stumble upon strange creaking noises in the house or know that a shadowy figure was in the room with the daughter, unaware of its presence, offer a rather simplistic take which furthers the initial setup of the family arriving in a dangerous house. When it gets more physical, including a vicious sequence on the younger brother by the possessed daughter or the genuine attacks on the family members as they get knocked off one by one, is where everything turns around into a series of gruesome and shocking scenes featuring some shocking antics and unexpected outcomes that lead into the feverish race to stop the spirit from continuing to wreak havoc. The series of tactics and concepts employed to fend it off, not just physical training and nonchalant attitudes but a series of gruesome practices designed to get the horrid truth out about the hauntings. These all manage to provide quite a lot to enjoy overall.
While these all leave this one with a lot to like, there are some issues present. One of the few factors involved is the bizarre tonal shift that occurs once the ghost has killed off the family and left the two surviving family members. While the grounded first half, where the family is targeted and subject to a series of hauntings, comes off genuinely thrilling and tense, the sudden descent into wacky comedy at the hands of the grandmother is a weird shift to undertake. Going full throttle with the revelation that she's not just a confused, fragile near-dying member of the family to one where her vibrant, rebellious punk-rock style manner of dealing with the ghost makes for a fun time but is so out of nowhere it can be hard to see the switch. Moreover, this section dealing with plenty of training build-ups about how to fight off the ghost leaves less time for the more traditional hauntings associated with the genre and can make for a bloated feeling where the film runs on a bit longer than necessary. While not truly detrimental, these can hold the film back.
Overview: ****/5
Featuring some exciting factors and not much in the way of flaws, there's plenty to enjoy with this one as it's another solid entry in his catalog. Those who appreciate this style of genre effort, are generally curious about it, or are fans of the creative crew will want to give it a shot, while only those turned off by this approach might want to heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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