Ju-rei: The Uncanny (2004)

One of my all time favorites.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

*****************Slight Spoilers****************Ju-Rei: You said review to come. Just a few facts about this movie. It isn't exactly unique and can get boring at times but one thing about this movie that is different is that it plays backwards from chapter 16 recceding to chapter 1. It's not the best shot movie and it seems low budget so don't expect fantastic special effects but it was quite a interesting movie. It starts out with 4 girls practicing their dance moves and as one of the girls begins to leave a dark mysterious figure appears infront of her and all of the other girls run away. The whole movie is about some Myth or legend that explains about a dark figure that comes and gets you and anyone that comes in contact with the person that has encountered that dark figure will also meet the dark demise. They don't explain the whole story behind the myth but it was a slightly entertaining film that was rather mishandled.3 out of 5 Stars - Not For everyone but entertaining enough to attract some.

Ghostly women with pale faces and long, dark hair? Check. Said ladies making vaguely comical cackling noises? Check. Creepy set-pieces leading to a confrontation with creepy long-haired, cackling, jittery ghost-women? Absolutely. Scary? Well...no.Anyone familiar with Japanese horror, and the Ju-on series in particular, will notice some similarities in the above description, and this isn't a brilliant coincidence. Ju-rei takes all of the best bits from Ju-on, and a few other films such as the out-of-focus spectres from Kairo, some of the sound design from the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre etc. and utilises them to almost zero effect. Every scare misses the mark because they have been done so much better so many times before. It's almost as if you are watching a parody of Japanese horror films - the way everything is constructed suggests a meeting with the filmmakers could have gone thus: 'Okay, so the girl hides under the covers but instead of having her come UNDER the sheet, she's waiting ON TOP OF IT!...and we'll use stock sound effect number 24b from the Ju-on catalogue of cackling.' As for the production values; there aren't any. Amateurishly shot on video with a total disregard for framing and lighting, most of Ju-rei looks too dark (in one case, a shot is obviously brightened up in post) and the quality of the transfer (on Pathfinder DVD) is poor, to say the least.I wouldn't recommend this film to anybody interested in Asian horror. It's dull, repetitive, derivative and completely unrewarding on any level. Avoid.

There is a curse affecting all who come into contact with it. It's spread like a horrible disease that only requires contact with an affected person. If you have the curse, you can expect to die a terrible, horrific death. The problem is that you may not know you've been cursed until it's too late and you see the black figure coming to get you.If you are a fan of horror and the very brief description sounds familiar, don't be surprised. Ju-rei exhibits very little in the way of originality. It's the best parts of Ju-on or The Grudge repeated over and over. The ghosts look the same, sound the same, move the same, and have the same motivations. Furthermore, within the movie there is also little originality. The movie is divided into ten chapters. Once you've seen two or three of the chapters, you can pretty well guess what's going to happen next. One chapter is almost the same as the next chapter. There nothing much to make one chapter distinguishable from the others. While I found the first couple of chapters fairly frightening, the repetitive nature of the movie really hurts any scares in the later chapters.The story is told backwards from chapter 10 to chapter 1. At first this seemed to be an interesting, unique way of telling a story. Trying to figure out who was who and how they came into contact with the curse was part of the fun of playing along. But, after a few chapters, it really didn't seem to matter much. Again, the lack of originality really hurt the movie.Another problem I had with the movie was the beginning and ending. Or, to put it in a better way, the lack of a beginning and the lack of an ending. The movie presents no resolution to the events in the movie. It just ends. Likewise, the movie does not present a clear starting point. It's as if the curse has always been there and we are just viewing part of it's progress. I felt very unsatisfied.

This movie is different in that it plays out backwards. We start at chapter ten and work our way to a prologue. As you watch it, you begin to see how all the people are interconnected. However, I wasn't really impressed with chapter one or the prologue. This movie seems to be racing towards some sort of dark secret, I could not wait to find out what it was, but in the end it never really revealed anything. I am still not sure what the urban myth was, it was a bit vague, and I never understood why the wife at the end did what she did. I am also unclear where the wife and her daughter were killed. Still though it was creepy enough to overcome this flaws. If you watch this movie, however, keep in mind it is very low budget. The effects are not going to awe you and the film is not very high quality. Still worthy of a look see if you like Japanese horror.