"Noroi" is a suspenseful film that's meant to be more chilling than scary, and it has a very compelling string of concepts that drive the story. The filmmaking is quite well-executed, particularly in its portrayals of news events and in its occasional ominous, dilapidated sets.
This film, however, is NOT the "scariest film from Japan" and it will NOT give you nightmares unless you scare extremely easily. The plot is NOT complex and instead relates a few completely random bad events that result from the titular curse (caused by a very generic demon). That said, you may still enjoy the atmosphere for its slow buildup of various foreboding events and images.
The film portrays a documentary crew examining a series of mysterious, compelling events, and these are rather interesting in and of themselves--but the film ultimately connects only a few of them, and in a rather predictable way. For instance, the film never gives any interesting meaning to the pigeons or knots that always appear before disasters, and characters like the reclusive Mr. Osawa serve no purpose in the end. In addition, the film diminishes its scariest scenes by replaying them, sometimes multiple times and often in campy slow-motion. There is a general lack of subtlety to all the scares, as they are spelled out and presented in-your-face to eliminate all the possible thrill or excitement.
Many people praise the final scene for being unsettling, but I found it very predictable; if you've been using your brain during the film, there isn't anything else you'd expect. The biggest flaw however is that, even by the very end of the film, we have no reason to care about any of the characters. The documentary-filmmaker protagonist is a bland "blank slate" guy with no sympathetic or even interesting traits. There is slightly more personality to the actress Marika, but she is also very passive and only serves to be a victim.
This film has a few novel gimmicks that can entertain you, but its "story" is little more than a framing device for said gimmicks. As I said, though, the filmmaking is well done, so you can probably enjoy sitting through it unless you hate "found footage" flicks. If you're looking for a profound horror story that will make you think, though, this is far from it.
This film, however, is NOT the "scariest film from Japan" and it will NOT give you nightmares unless you scare extremely easily. The plot is NOT complex and instead relates a few completely random bad events that result from the titular curse (caused by a very generic demon). That said, you may still enjoy the atmosphere for its slow buildup of various foreboding events and images.
The film portrays a documentary crew examining a series of mysterious, compelling events, and these are rather interesting in and of themselves--but the film ultimately connects only a few of them, and in a rather predictable way. For instance, the film never gives any interesting meaning to the pigeons or knots that always appear before disasters, and characters like the reclusive Mr. Osawa serve no purpose in the end. In addition, the film diminishes its scariest scenes by replaying them, sometimes multiple times and often in campy slow-motion. There is a general lack of subtlety to all the scares, as they are spelled out and presented in-your-face to eliminate all the possible thrill or excitement.
Many people praise the final scene for being unsettling, but I found it very predictable; if you've been using your brain during the film, there isn't anything else you'd expect. The biggest flaw however is that, even by the very end of the film, we have no reason to care about any of the characters. The documentary-filmmaker protagonist is a bland "blank slate" guy with no sympathetic or even interesting traits. There is slightly more personality to the actress Marika, but she is also very passive and only serves to be a victim.
This film has a few novel gimmicks that can entertain you, but its "story" is little more than a framing device for said gimmicks. As I said, though, the filmmaking is well done, so you can probably enjoy sitting through it unless you hate "found footage" flicks. If you're looking for a profound horror story that will make you think, though, this is far from it.