This film is the fourth in the popular Japanese horror series and it is the best. Throughout the series, the main problem has been that there isn’t a clear central character to care about. Here we have Kyoko Harase (Noriko Sakai, narrator of POKEMON: PICHU AND PIKACHU), a horror movie actress who visits the cursed house of the previous films to do a documentary. As in the other films, the curse of Kayako (Takako Fuji) and her son Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) tracks down all that have contact with the house. However, this time they seem to be toying with Kyoko, who is pregnant.
As part of the series, this film does the best job of making us care about a character who is being hunted by the curse. However, the film still lacks any fight by the characters. They all seem like helpless fodder. The inactivity of the characters gets frustrating. If they make a fifth JU-ON, I’d like to see somebody try to figure out the curse and stop it.
Nonetheless, director Takashi Shimizu is still a master at creating tension and creepy imagery. He understands exactly what makes a great fireside horror tale scary and incorporates that into the film. This is perfectly displayed in the haunting of the apartment sequence. First and foremost, the JU-ON films are scary. This one actually made the hair on my body stand up more than once. In terms of horror that’s a success.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
