Ju-On

Film festival Midnight Madness screenings are the absolute best place in the world to indulge in genre film mania.  There’s no experience quite like being packed into the grand old Uptown Theater (now sadly closed, this festival was it’s last hurrah) with 900 rabid fans screaming at all the right moments for whatever kung fu, horror, or other general strangeness the programmers have chosen to throw on screen.  I was out of town for Ong Bak and am still kicking myself for missing it, but Ju-On more than made up for it.

This Japanese ghost story is poised to become the next Ring.  It’s already created enough of a sensation in Asia that the sequel has already been completed and Sam Raimi is currently in Japan producing an English language remake with original director Takashi Shimizu at the helm.

This is very likely the most effective horror film I have ever seen.  Ever.  Told in an episodic fashion that lets the director throw in a good scare every ten minutes or so, Ju-On is a basic haunted house story.  A mother and her young son were murdered in their home—the mother’s corpse hidden in the attic, the son’s never found—and they now harbor a grudge against the living.  Simply put, if you come too close, the ghosts kill you.  Or drive you mad.  Then you yourself take on the curse and the circle widens.

The film’s structure is dead simple.  A single name appears on a black screen.  That person is going to die in the next film segment.  Person dies, next name appears.  Repeat.  No, there’s not a whole lot of plot—if you get too close you die, remember?  Not a lot of room for plot development, but Shimizu does such an incredible job of building up tension and then delivering the goods that nobody really cares about storyline anyway.  It’s all about getting to the next scare.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about this film is that all of the hallmarks of the American horror film—the gore, the shocking effects—are completely absent here.  Shimizu scares the pants off you using nothing more than sound and lighting effects, a killer sense of timing, and a little kid painted this odd pale purple color.

Written by Chris Brown.