From Japanese director Kōji Shiraishi, the same guy who did Noroi: The Curse, comes this 2009 found footage horror about a documentary crew working on a project chronicling the aftermath of a violent incident and interviewing survivors.
Two girls out walking and filming on a bridge inadvertently capture a mass stabbing on camera. Several years later, a documentary crew begin doing a film where they chronicle the aftermath of the incident. While interviewing survivors, they come across strange phenomena, including one stabbing survivor, Koji, who’s scar has healed in a strange pattern. As they investigate further, they notice paranormal occurrences around Koji, such as things moving by themselves. He also states that he’s thankful for having experienced the stabbing, as it’s caused him to experience miracles, such as seeing UFO’s. They decide to give him a camera so he can try to film any paranormal activity that happens around him, and in exchange, they’ll pay him for every incident he captures.
The film is well done and hooks you from the very beginning. As the movie progresses, it becomes increasingly disturbing, and does a great job of capturing how mentally unstable people can perceive things around them to validate their delusions. The only thing that doesn’t work is the final scene, which is just cheesy. I get what they were going for, but the execution just doesn’t deliver the effect it should. Other than that, it’s an entertaining, compelling film. This is the second Japanese found footage horror movie I’ve seen, and they seem to use that medium to great effect. I’ll have to try and find some more to see if they’re as good. It’s available to watch on YouTube for free.
From director Gaspar Noé (Irriversible, Enter The Void) comes another one of his signature descents into insanity. Climax is about a French dance troupe doing a rehearsal in an abandoned school.
After their rehearsal is done, they continue to play music, socialize, dance and drink. Their manager, Emmanuelle, makes a large batch of sangria that most of the dancers drink. As the night continues, they begin to feel odd. It soon becomes apparent that someone spiked the sangria with LSD. As the effects of the hallucinogen take hold, the night soon spirals into paranoia, anxiety and confusion, with everyone having a severe reaction to the drug.
I’ve been wanting to check this one out since I’d heard of it. Noé, who’s become infamous for his shocking, controversial films, creates yet another movie that feels like a surreal dream turned nightmare. From his use of music, color, scenes that are one long tracking shot, odd camera angles, and opening credits that are scattered throughout the film’s runtime, the effect is a dizzying, disorienting experience that hooks the viewer and keeps things tense and off-kilter. He cast the film with mostly amateur dancers, each of whom brings a specific style to their moves (hip hop, vogue, some classical ballet, etc.). He also had the cast improvise their lines, giving them a basic outline of what the story would entail and letting them come up with the rest. There’s a segment early in the film where all the dancers are interviewed that helps set up seemingly insignificant details of their lives that come into play later. Another cool detail is the interviews are seen on a tv screen, with shelves on each side stacked with books and dvd’s of works by Nietzsche, about suicide, schizophrenia, and titles such as Taxi Driver, Suspiria, Possession, Querelle, Hara-Kiri, Zombie and Salo. All these works study and display various levels of the psyche, horror, insanity and deprivation, which is a nice foreshadowing of what’s to come. Climax is a unique, disturbing and visually stunning film. I watched it on Tubi.
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