Don't Look Up

For his first ever debut this film has some riveting and chilling moments. In the best horror film fashion the pit of your stomach tightens every moment during this film. The ending is superb. The makers of Blaire Witch obviously watched this film it's ending wasn't an end but a beginning of the end. A great movie and only a piece of Japan's great as far as scare factor a perfect score it makes you think and scared out of your mind.

A worth-while watch for an introduction to the origins of modern J-Horror. As a Freshman directorial effort some aspects show through as "need improvement,"; continuity of story, backstory development, score, lighting - however, the concept of this film became the backbone of J-Horror and the foreshadowing of many of what we now call cliches in Asian Horror. That being said, by today's standards not a "scary" film nor one that will be memorable for younger audiences.

'Don't Look Up' also known as 'Ghost Actress' is a well-made, atmospheric and occasionally creepy Japanese horror film that laid the groundwork for 'Ringu' and other genre defining J-Horror films that would dominate the sub-genre in the late 90's and early 00's. Directed by Hideo Nakata, the movie is solid and features an interesting story and a competent cast but lacks the scares, tension or the polish that would set it apart from other ghost stories and instead acts as more of a fascinating prototype than a well-defined horror movie.

The Plot = First time director Toshio Murai (Yurei Yanagi) discovers a sinister secret after strange and supernatural events occur in a movie studio.

The movie focuses more on atmosphere, creeping dread and subtle supernatural touches over on-screen violence and while I did enjoy these elements, the reveal and end climax left me wanting more story and felt way too brief and underdeveloped. Despite the short running time, the pacing still felt slow and dragged way too often, lacking hardly any tension or momentum to keep you invested. The use of the movie within a movie motif works well and felt quite innovative for its time and the mystery element was quite intriguing and reinforces the narrative's unsettling atmosphere, but other than that there's not much here to recommend for fans outside of J-Horror.

The direction by Hideo Nakata is decent and shows many of his trademark techniques that would show up in his later films and sets a strong visual tone for the movie which gives it a cool enigmatic quality.

Overall 'Don't Look Up' is a decent J-Horror entry that set the foundations for bigger and better movies to follow, but for viewers looking to seek these movies out then you'll be better off starting with the big titles first such as 'Ringu' and 'The Grudge' before viewing this.

After watching this film last night on Sundance, I realized that much of Nakata's style was first done in this film. Here we have many of the same elements of the RINGU series, especially the idea of the media being the source of the supernatural. Instead of the cursed videotape, we instead having a haunted studio and strange images appearing on film. In fact, the strange images appearing on film brings immediately the cursed videotape in RINGU to mind. The only thing missing was the obsession to water that runs through Nakata's later films. The final scenes are quite chilling, with a bit of a nod to Murnau, what with the door opening by itself ands the ghost entering the room, reminds me immediatly of

NOSFERATU. A chilling movie that will make think twice about going up to a catwalk.

I really enjoyed this debut by Ring director, Hideo Nakata. If you've seen Ring beforehand then you'll be familiar with the style and idea of this flick. It's got a subtle spookiness about it that works better than the constant (and predictable) stingers that infest most mainstream movies of this genre. If you like films that give you the chills, then you will probably like this one. A good, creepy debut by Hideo Nakata. 8/10