scobbah I am really into Japanese stuff but I have been laying low the past year due to lack of time to indulge in such movies. A group of friends and I rented this one last night without having any expectations on it. The flick started out pretty funky using a lot of colour filters which we discovered were kept throughout the entire movie. I had no problems adjusting to it but some of my friends had problems enjoying the flick due to these filters.As for the plot, I did not find it that bad. Conventional indeed with a few people going to an abandoned house so if you are looking for original cinema, I suppose this one will not save your day. I cannot really comment on the acting. The main actors did not do exceptionally well but not poor either. However the scenery was really nice, the interiors of the house coming to mind.I was a bit unhappy with how the story unfolded. I suppose I expected something more. At any rate it was an OK time-killer and I think it is worth at least 5/10. The flick is not exceptionally good but still a good piece of entertainment a Saturday night.

Julie Hoverson While the story of St. John's Wort is something I could easily imagine coming out of Hammer Films, or a classic Vincent Price movie, it's not BAD, and the visuals more than make up for it.PLOT: Nami inherits a spooky old mansion, takes her ex-boyfriend along so they can scope out using the place as a setting for their video game. Turns out she may have had a twin who died when she was a child. Also turns out her father was a crazy artist, who painted creepy pictures. Is the house haunted? Is the twin still alive? Who is the spooky caretaker? See what I mean by it being very Vincent Price-ish? Anyway, the plot is fairly solid, though I did find at least one of the ending plot twists useless and incomprehensible, but since it really affected nothing else in the film, I ignored it.The VISUALS, on the other hand...The whole movie is oddly colored, which is unsettling to begin with, and which makes sections of it look like they might be CGI, or bluescreened, or might just be badly tinted - all adding to the unreality of the whole thing. Also, the camera "view" keeps shifting, from "reality" to the ex's hand-held camera, to B&W surveillance cameras, and even to a "video game version".My favorite bit of unreality involves the caretaker - when they arrive at the place, the caretaker gives Nami the keys, but the scene is played out as a video game sequence, with the caretaker icon's lines being printed on the screen, rather than spoken - thus making it impossible to determine anything, even gender, about this "person".Overall, I found it very watchable.

siderite This movie is like a video game, Elvira style, if anyone remembers it :) Girl inherits spooky house, goes there, finds out about her family and childhood and "the terrible secret". The fact that the whole thing was done in order to create materials for a video game added an element of obvious to the movie.I liked the actors, they played well for their parts, you might recognize the girl from Ju-On The Grudge, cute as ever. I felt that the starting idea was very promising and if the movie would have drifted in the "asian horror" area, it could have been a very interesting movie about teenager enterprise. This way, the film wasn't serious enough to be called a horror, nor was is funny enough to be called a comedy. And I have come to dislike movies that increase their level of complexity by mirroring themselves (let's do a movie about making a movie about...).In the end it was OK, but nothing special. I would rather play Elvira again.

lost-in-limbo Nami's is creating a video game with the images from her dreams. While visiting her estrange father's abandoned house that was inherited to her along with her workmate/ex-boyfriend Kohei, she discovers the dreams that she has seem to match that of the house and some hidden secrets too. It's basically a mystery/horror film about a creepy house and its dark secrets.This was one really SLOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW film, with nothing really exciting happening at all… actually to be honest nothing much did happen. Though you might say it was slowly building up the psychological terror that was about to come- but towards the end it turns into somewhat of a bloodbath of graphic images that doesn't really gel. All it was about was two teenagers wondering around a dark creepy house and Nami discovering secrets about her family… it's too bad because it came across as very atmospheric- but it was really tedious sitting through this drag-fest. The film looked great- but that's it, I had trouble trying not to fall asleep, as there was nothing engaging and mysterious about the story and characters. The plot doesn't make much sense at all, it was truly incoherent and all over the place as one scene slowly dragged onto the next without any real urgency, then you get a twist that you see coming- but then it would twist back on itself and your left scratching your head… fancy that? But this final twist lacks logic, as it's not fully explained and therefore is ridiculously laughable.What I can't knock is the sinister and chilling atmosphere, with a misty house that is truly atmospheric and unnerving, especially the paintings on the walls, the menacing shadows, dim lighting and dark corners. The colours stood out as well and become somewhat of an impact, very bleak and depressing colourings of greys, browns and black, created a real emptiness. The flashy camera-work (something you would associate with Sam Rami) is quite out there and very arty at first- but it was over-used to a point that it became real choppy and distracting, because at times you couldn't tell what was actually happening. The performances were the same as the plot, really flat and uninspiring. That's because they're given nothing to work with and they don't do anything of any interest. Therefore… who cares!!! When the outlandishly grim conclusion happens and we start learning where the film is actually going, you couldn't really give a toss, as you were bored to death waiting for an hour for something good to happen. Instead for that hour we get look at dark rooms and more rooms, in many different stylish ways- but then something actually happens and it picks up in the last 15mins, though people might have given up already and I wished I did. To make matters worse the film ends with a very absurd and unsatisfying conclusion… *Shaking head*.Like some fellow users have typed, the film does play out like a video game. Though I admit I'm no video game fanatic- but the problem is it's like your watching somebody else playing the game, which isn't that fun... I rather be playing it!Just expect to see the usual harrowing images, a creepy house with spooky noises and things lurking. Oh don't forget an evil looking girl with long black hair in a white dress. I bet you didn't see that coming. Looks visually good, but this yawner lacks punch as nothing much happens!1/5