Ju-on: Origins

It's been a while since there's been a good "Ju-On" anything, so this chilling miniseries is a very welcome addition to the franchise. It surpasses most of the previous films in terms of atmosphere and genuine scares, becoming visceral and genuinely disturbing. It is also the most visually striking of the whole series, employing some fantastic surreal imagery.

The most important thing of all is that the story remains interesting, it doesn't just recycle earlier plotlines, instead creating it's own new storyline that answers as many questions as it asks. The non-linear structure adds more depth to the anthology formula used throughout the franchise, which is given time to breathe here as a miniseries than as an 80-minute film.

I was actually looking forward to this show being a fan of horror movies and the franchise, but found myself loosing interest pretty quickly. I was trying to keep up with all the timelines, but the jumping back and forth with flashback and years in each episode got a bit confusing. I didn't find it that scary either and would say it's more of a crime show with some horror in it.

If you would like to watch it I recommend you really pay attention when watching this show.

JU-ON: Origins: A tv series is sort of a prequel, inbetweenquel and sequel to the original Ju-On. The action covers the period 1988 to 1997 but it also strays back to the origins of the curse in 1952. We have angry ghosts, confused ghosts, ghosts who can take on physical forms, time-slips. Much of the horror though is of the more mundane variety be it school bullies tricking a girl to go to the cursed house so that a friend can abuse or domestic violence. Some of this may be brought about by evil spirits but not all. The violence passes on through the generations and families who move into the house meet gruesome deaths. Murders and suicides abound. A dark. disturbing series, season one ends on a cliffhanger. Directed by Sho Miyake, written by Takashige Ichise and Hiroshi Takahashi. 7/10. On Netflix.

This series was a solid, albeit unnecessary revamp of the Grudge origin story. It's nothing we haven't seen before in terms of story, but its execution feels more authentic here, and gruesome enough to easily warrant its TV-MA rating. I'm glad they decided to keep this origin series within its original Japanese roots instead of Americanizing it once again, as we've all seen how those have turned out... Overall a solid series, though it would've probably worked better as a 2 hour Japanese film instead.

If you wanna know more about the backstory of Ju-on it's okay to watch. But if you're here for a good horror series or some good scares you better skip this.