Sandy Petersen This film is by Kiroshi Kurosawa, better known for his films Charisma, Seance, Kairu (Pulse), and Cure. His work is erratic, in my opinion (I loved Kairu, but found Charisma tedious and self-important), so I wasn't sure what to expect with Sweet Home.What I found was a good old-fashioned haunted house, with a love story on the side that actually drew in my interest. The three main characters are interesting - there is a father, his daughter, and his co-worker who is enamored of him, and he her, but neither of them have the spine to admit it, so the daughter keeps trying to set them up.They are part of a film crew with a group of much less interesting people who are going to film a documentary about a painter who lived in this big old mansion. Well, the mansion is haunted, and badly. The mural painted on the walls gives hints of the problem, and people start going insane, dying, and the shadows come to life. A local character, which I think I was also in Hiruko Goblin Hunter, comes to help.The basic problem is that the evil manifests as killer shadows, which makes the ghosts difficult to fight. The hero at one point decides to use klieg lights, but the local character points out that the power lights will only make MORE shadows, and ends with the chilling remark "There is a shadow inside your fist." The movie is by-the-numbers in some respects. Every 15-20 minutes is another shocking gore scene - you can almost set your watch by it. The ghost at the end of the film is a really awesome puppet which I totally adored, and one death scene ranks up there with the decomposition of the two zombies at the end of the first Evil Dead film.I can't say I was ever gripping the edge of my seat with terror, but it did the job. I cared about at least some of the characters who were threatened. There was enough gore to please me, and enough romance to please my wife, plus heroism, cowardice, madness, and some interesting shots. Well worth a look for horror buffs.

yumpizza1000 I saw this movie recently thinking that it would be scary, I was wrong. The movie isn't really that scary, it mostly has the usual gross horror special effects and killings. I was surprised at how "stupid" the movie was. A few examples, if you are working under a jacked-up car and listening to a sports game, do you get excited and start hopping while you're still underneath? If someone sees a small, strange, man-made rock formation with a skull-shaped rock on top, should they kick it over so they can use one of the rocks to break open a shed? If someone is killed with an axe, why would they turn into a pile of melted wax and how does a character recognize that pile of melted wax as one of their friends? This is just a few of the nonsensical things. The characters in the movie are not the usual horror cliché, pausing when they should be running, not picking up weapons etc., they are complete idiots. This movie would be great entertainment for a bad movie night or if you enjoy B movies (I do but, this was too much). Don't expect a work of art like other horror movies.

mr-norman-bates I would agree with the other reviewers that this is essentially a Japanese take on POLTERGEIST. Do not let that stop you from seeing it however.If there was any way to truly describe this film, it would be if Dario Argento (during his heyday in the late 70's) directed a film with Japanese stars. Every shot has the look and the lighting from films like SUSPIRIA, PHENOMENA, TENEBRAE, even down to the tracking shots and steadycam work.Which brings me to another point: if there is anyone who has a VHS/ laserdisc/ DVD of this film (preferrably with english subtitles), please let us know. I have a copy but it could have better image quality.Regardless, seek this film out. You will not be disappointed.

hushicho After I played the original Famicom game recently, dubbed the 'father of survival horror', and after being suitably impressed by the game itself I began my long and difficult search for this movie title. Although it remains unknown to anyone that I've consulted whether the movie was based on the game or vice-versa, either way both are excellent.I was impressed most of all by the consistently-excellent acting of Miyamoto Nobuko, whose appearances in film almost always guarantee at least one enjoyable character. However, all the acting in this was exceptional, especially NOKKO's, whom I had not seen in any film before this one. I am still unsure as to who played Kazuo, the main male lead, but he was of course excellent, although it was of course Akiko (Miyamoto) who demonstrated her personal strength throughout.How this film manages to convey a touching message about the bond between a mother and her child in the midst of terror and horrific special effects is beyond me, but it somehow manages to do it quite well, and it also stays very faithful in many ways to the game, which impressed me; it shows how well a story can be translated into both game and movie medium. Especially since this also seems to point out the weakness of similar Hollywood efforts, which almost always are disastrous.All in all, this movie was very well-paced, terrifying, and tense, but somehow remained touching as well. The scares weren't too graphic or obvious, but by the time the 'big guns' were pulled out on the effects, you were fully drawn in. A true classic and a great film.