Don't Look Up

Lots of effective, creepy moments building up in the first 2/3 of the film, but seems to putter out after that. Solid performances and great handling of the "movie within a movie (within another movie?)". Still, a good first effort from director Hideo Nakata ("Ring").

This film is great at putting ideas into the viewer's subconscious. The whole simple idea of the story is great, by having the characters shoot a film such that the viewer almost feels like they are separated from the characters and in tune with the supernatural. Since you are watching people making a movie investigating another movie, it brings you into the action, as if the same things could happen to you. The blandness of some scenes on the surface is really fun when contrasted against the supernatural events that happen later. An example is a line where the director tells the actress not to "look down" when saying her lines, when she really shouldn't be "looking up" later when she encounters the ghost. One of the most interesting things about this movie is that you wouldn't even think this was a ghost story in some scenes until you realize the context it is in. Definitely this is one of the best ghost detective stories, it has an almost meditative nature and makes the movie more scary. The over the shoulder scenes of the ghost are very scary, partly because the movie often shows people filming from the opposite angle, so you are actually watching them film, scenes in which you could become the ghost. By concentrating on the existence of the ghost, the whole movie becomes more scary.

Not on the same level as Ring (or Ring 2) but still a good Japanese horror flick nonetheless. I wish North American horror producers would take a page out of the Japanese horror template and put more 'spookiness' and less cheap shocks in their flicks. Lots of good examples in this one, scenes where a whited out face is scene staring behind a young actress, photographs on a wall are suddenly glimpsed smiling, just for a second, and more. Worth checking out if you like the genre.

'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.