Rarely do I take the time and effort to write something about a movie I've watched, but after suffering through this entire movie I felt compelled to warn anyone who might consider watching it. If I can prevent one person from wasting their time on this wretched movie, this review was worth my time.
We'll start with the acting. It was awful. Only the "heroine" of the movie, Tsukiko (Moe Arai), looked as if she might belong in a professionally made movie. Her performance wasn't good by any stretch, but it wasn't laughably bad like EVERY SINGLE other main actor. The villain, Tomie (Miu Nakamura), was annoying from the very beginning of the movie. And she only got worse as the movie crept along. The parents' performances were ridiculous, but not overly annoying like Tomie.
The story made no sense. Every time I thought I might be starting to understand where the movie was trying to go, it abruptly changed scenes and completely ruined any progress it may have been making.
The special effects were TERRIBLE. I've seen better special effects in '80s B-movies. Not much to say here other than the movie looked cheaply made.
I'm no expert on Japanese horror movies, but I've seen a fair share and I've liked a lot of them too, but this one had absolutely no redeeming qualities to speak of. It wasn't even "so bad it was humorous." At no point in the movie did I crack a smile or think "you know, maybe this ISN'T the biggest waste of my time I could have possibly spent." Maybe there's just some cultural thing I'm not getting. It's possible there's an audience for a movie like this, but you'd REALLY have to be into bad horror movies with bad plots that make no sense, bad acting, and bad special effects to appreciate this movie.
In summary, I can't remember a movie I've ever enjoyed less.
