The Video Dead

"The Video Dead" (1987, Robert Scott, Interstate 5 Productions, Highlight Productions, Manson International) is one of those 80s horror films whose cover art is the reason I got into horror in the first place.

A writer receives the delivery of a television by accident which turns out to be the gateway to the real world for the zombie antagonists of a black and white B-movie called "Zombie Blood Nightmare". Despite being unplugged, the zombies escape through the screen and begin to terrorise the neighbourhood. Some time later a new family buys the writer's house and discover the TV in the attic and the humorous zombie antics begin again!

Cheesy, clunky and bizarre this little gem of B-movie ridiculousness is one of those pizza and beer movies that will keep you and your friends laughing and eye-rolling in equal measure. From crazy characters, weird scripting and zombies in wigs this movie enjoys some amusing ideas.... and oddly no video tapes at all!

[Image: Interstate 5 Productions, et al]

Hani

Cam

"Cam" (2018, Daniel Goldhaber, Divide/Conquer, Blumhouse Productions, Gunpowder & Sky, Seer Capital) is a technology-driven cautionary tale about identity theft online.

Alice (Madeline Brewer) is a camgirl working under the moniker Lola_Lola is on her way to her goal of reaching the top 50 girls on her porn website when her channel is suddenly hijacked by an unnerving doppelganger. Alice begins to dig deeper into this mystery, uncovering some disturbing findings...

A really interesting concept, we follow Alice as she starts to take her channel to new levels in her bid to improve her status and then watch as her carefully built empire and fanbase is taken over and taken out of her control.

A fun thriller that will pique the interests of any fan of "Black Mirror" or "Inside No. 9". "Cam" delivers an engaging story and a few twists with strong performances and an ambiguous, but not unsuitable, ending.

Currently on Netflix, it's definitely worth checking out.

[Image: Blumhouse Productions, et al]

Hani

Selfie From Hell

"Selfie From Hell" (2018, Erdal Ceylan, IndustryWorks Pictures) is a modern technology horror.

When vlogger, Julia (Meelah Adams), falls mysteriously ill while visiting her cousin, Hannah (Alyson Walker), it prompts Hannah to go through Julia's vlogging videos where she discovers that her cousin is involved in dark stuff on the Deep Web. Oddly, Hannah is also receiving messages form Julia, despite Julia being unconscious. The deeper Hannah begins to dig, the more she too starts to notice a strange presence haunting her, too - especially when she attempts to take a selfie.

A plot that was an effective horror short loses something in becoming feature length. The film actually boasts some fun and competent effects which add to the tension in the horror scenes - particularly where the selfie taker is slowly stalked by the 'selfieman'. However, the overall feature is a little clunky and fails to deliver the scares promised by the short. The characters also make some extremely odd decisions (of course you'd dump your comatose cousin in your bed...) and don't successfully build a lot of sympathy from the audience.

[Image: IndustryWorks Pictures]

Hani

Rings

"Rings" (2017, F. Javier Gutiérrez, Parkes/MacDonald, BenderSpink, Marci/Edelstein, Vertigo Entertainment, Waddieish Claretrap, Paramount Pictures) is the third movie in the American "The Ring" franchise.

Since the happenings of the first two films, Samara (Bonnie Morgan) has taken her haunting ways from the VHS world into the digital world with the help of Gabriel Brown (Johnny Galecki) and his AV club.

This is unfortunate for Julia (Matilda Lutz), who's boyfriend, Holt (Alex Roe), is in the AV Club. In her bid to save him from Samara's gruesome curse, she jumps down the rabbit hole of Samara's past, finding more than she anticipated...

A pretty typical horror sequel with some pretty typical horror sequel pitfalls:

Firstly, retreading old ground - why does every Ring movie have to focus on Samara's origin story? We've established that she will stop at nothing, why can't we just enjoy her brutal, endless pursuit of the curious without having to find her motivation?

Secondly, our ghoulish villainess sees so little screen time. One of the best things about "The Ring" is Samara, just as the best thing about the original Japanese version is Sadako. The unsettling movements she makes, the way she pursues her prey... Her overall aesthetic.... the hair. Both antagonists are the stuff of nightmares, and "Rings" barely makes use of her. Sometimes less is more, but it felt like Samara was barely chasing anyone after the first 30 minutes.

There are good points, too, however. There is one good entrance through a face-down TV, however, that I enjoyed. I like Johnny Galecki's morally questionable lecturer character, and the both Julia and Holt were actually pretty likeable.

Not a terrible film, just a little pointless.

[Image: Vertigo Entertainment, et al]

Hani

Sadako vs Kayako

"Sadako vs Kayako" (2016, Kōji Shiraishi, Kadokawa Daiei, NBC Universal Entertainment Japan) is a crossover of the Ring and Ju-On series. The film actually began life as an April Fools' Joke, but was actually turned into a real feature length film after having a good reception.

When college students, Yuri (Mizuki Yamamoto) and Natsumi (Aimi Satsukawa), come across the cursed video tape they had learned about in class they unwittingly watch it, releasing the curse of the forever creepy and forever vengeful Sadako (Elly Nanami).

In another part of town high school student, Suzuka (Tina Tamashiro), moves in next door to the infamous Saeki house and begins to notice creepy things. After unwittingly following some young trespassers into the house she becomes 'grudged' by the ghosts of Kayako (Runa Endo) and Toshio (Rintaro Shibamoto).

The girls' seek to rid themselves of their respective curses, with the help of psychic, Keizō (Masanobu Ando) and his associate; brutally honest, blind, psychic girl, Tamao (Mai Kikuchi). The psychic team decide to try to pit the ghouls against one another in a bid to end both curses forever!

While the film is a little cheesy, busy and definitely favours Sadako's screentime over her rival, Kayako, it works well as a crossover due to its fun characters and humorous fight scenes. There are still some eerie scenes reminiscent of both franchises' roots, but also some comedy in there that oddly works with the offbeat, and somewhat ridiculous plot. I also enjoyed Keizō and Tamao's extremely random repartee.

The film is oddly charming and, like all crossovers, has a strange fanfiction-like atmosphere.

[Image: Kadokawa Daiei)

Hani

Friend Request

"Friend Request" (2016, Simon Verhoeven, Warner Bros., Freestyle Releasing, Wiedemann & Berg Film, SevenPictures Film, Two Oceans Productions) is a supernatural horror centred around social media and a college campus.

Laura (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is a popular girl with over 800 social media friends. She lives off-campus with a group of pals and gets good grades. One day, she receives a friend invite from a reclusive girl in her class, Marina (Liesl Ahlers). Laura accepts the girl's request, seeing that she would become Marina's first friend... She even tries to connect in person. Big mistake. The girl becomes obsessed and takes very public umbridge when she is not invited to Laura's birthday dinner, vowing to get revenge on Laura for slighting her.

Laura gets freaked out and deletes Marina on social media. The next day news comes that Marina has committed suicide. Not just that, but she filmed it and the video has went viral about campus. In her death video, Marina publicly names Laura as the reason for her suicide. Laura's many friends begin to shun her and she soon suspects that she has been cursed...

The film has a good premise. Social media is the latest trend in horror lore, taking over from some of the older evil-technology films including the "Ring" series, etc... It does suffer from some bad scripting, some hammy scenes and a lot of tropes: of course the recluse is a goth, of course she is an orphan...

It's all very by-the-numbers, but is perfect for its target audience - teens who may just be getting into horror. As an established horror fan, it falls a little flat to me, but I don't believe I'm in their intended demographic. Whilst that does make the film suffer a little, it does deliver some good scenes and a strong, if flawed, message about being careful who you add on social media, and how much of yourself you put out there. You just never know what will be used against you.

[Image: Warner Bros., et al]

Hani

Unfriended

"Unfriended" (2014, Leo Gabriadze, Bazelevs Company, Blumhouse Productions, Universal Pictures) is a modern horror featured around the dangers of the internet and how being an asshole can have a price tag. Or something.

It's been a year since high school student, Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) committed suicide after being publicly humiliated by a drunken video online. Her friends Blaire (Shelley Hennig), Mitch (Moses Jacob), Adam (Will Peltz), Jess (Renee Olstead), Ken (Jacob Wysocki) and Val (Courtney Halverson) are meeting online for a group Skype conversation when they notice that a random has joined in. Confused, they try to shake them, but it seems like this creeper can't be gotten rid of so easily.

Soon, they begin to each receive random and threatening messages and notice that Laura's Facebook has been hacked and is posting private messages, videos and other weird things. They decide to give up when the random, who they find is using Laura's old Instagram account, chimes in warning them that if they do, one of them will die. Some of their own profiles begin to do strange things too, and a fight is sparked when Jess appears to be sharing humiliating pictures of Val at a party.

One by one, each person is forced to reveal horrific secrets they've been keeping that make my "rebellious" teenage years look really, really tame. As the friendships die, so do some of the friends in apparent suicides.... But why?

It's a good premise and it's executed as well as it can be. There's a lot of reading involved and it must have been a damned cheap film to make. The scares will really only suffice for a younger generation and computer literate audience. Essentially, we're just sat watching over someone's shoulder (Blaire's) looking at her screen while the events unfold. We're also talking the usual pretty laggy Skype video quality we all know and love...

So, whilst I commend it for being about a pretty tricky subject (cyber bullying) and for having a good, modern gimmick, it does suffer for being a touch too gimmicky. We could have done with less friends to watch die for a start, since the death scenes have such little payout. Really the film could have been a bit shorter and still packed a punch. However, I enjoyed the mystery of it all and watching it all unfold. And it's always funny to watch people argue and get called out for lies and bad behaviour. There's also a lesson in here for being a nice person... and not posting mortifying videos of your mates at their worst.

Really, these guys were just the worst kind of people. Wow.

Some of the deaths are pretty impressively captured, despite the medium used. It's not the kind of film you can watch again and again, but I have to say it surpassed my expectations quite well.

[Image: Universal Pictures, et al]

Hani

Cube

"Cube" (1997, Vincenzo Natali, Odeon Films, Viacom Canada, Ontario Film Development Corporation) is a Canadian sci-fi horror about a bunch of strangers finding themselves inexplicably locked in a cubic, booby trapped prison.

The only way to escape is to work together, but can everyone hold it together long enough to survive?

Cube is a low budget film, and if you're looking for flaws you'll find them; the sets are all the same with different lighting, the traps are relatively simple and the premise and plot don't develop much. However, it doesn't stop me from loving this film. It's a clever film. While the premise and setting are both simple, the characters develop, creating intrigue as each reveals more and more of their increasingly flawed personalities. Each new room has a sense of threat and builds excellent and claustrophobic tension as we travel through the deadly maze.

"Cube" plays out as an interesting character study with a sci-fi setting and manages to remain engaging despite its limited setting.

[Image: Odeon Films, et al]

Hani

All Hallow's Eve

"All Hallow's Eve" (2013, Damien Leone, Ruthless Pictures) is a supernatural slasher about a killer clown and a VHS tape. With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I'd start looking at some films I haven't seen before.

Sarah (Katie Maquire) is babysitting Tia (Sydney Freihofer) and her brother Timmy (Cole Mathewson) on Halloween night. We all know that's a bad idea for a start. Timmy opens his trick or treat loot to find that some strange neighbour has put a VHS tape in instead of sweets. Sarah is obviously keen to check the tape's contents before letting the kids watch it. Personally, I would have just put that creepy shit in the bin, but whatever.

The tape turns out to be an anthology of murders which all feature Art the Creepy Clown (Mike Giannelli) in some way or other. Thinking it's just a somewhat disturbing movie, Sarah gives in and lets the kids watch some of it before putting them to bed. But Art the clown makes a special guest appearance later that night, with some unhappy results...

Art the clown was first invented for a short film called "The 9th Circle" in 2008 and was again seen in another short called "Terrifier" in 2011. He's a pretty creepy character, but the film doesn't do him justice as it's just not scary enough to make the most of him.

The film itself isn't awful by any means, but there are long boring stretches and the lack of dialogue in large segments of film, while mostly effective, result in a loss of interest from the viewer after a while. The subject matter is violent and gory with most of the action centering on the depraved clown who just seems to hate lone women and want to hurt them.

There are some really disturbing scenes and some good practical effects, considering the film's low budget. I particularly appreciated the beginning to the end of the wraparound plot, which is by far the best part of the film. Unfortunately, some other effects and costumes are much less effective (I'm sure I could get a more convincing alien costume in 'Poundland') and lose some of the viewer's engagement.

The whole VHS tape thing is becoming a trope of its own and I couldn't review this film without obviously comparing it to "The Ring" series and "V/H/S", which both enjoy much more scares than this one does, but also bigger budgets. One thing that "All Hallow's Eve" did do quite well was slowly make the babysitter's environment more menacing as the film went on.

They've tried to give the film a gritty, video tape vibe with some muting of colours etc. Each segment has a different post-production hue, which I liked.

So, it's not a masterpiece. I'm not a huge fan of torture-porn films and the low budget hindered some of the film's effectiveness. The overall linkage of the shorts is pretty sketchy, the actual shorts themselves are not great and some of the action is more funny or just gross than scary. But it shows a lot of potential from Damien Leone as his full length debut and Art the clown is truly very creepy.

[Image: Ruthless Pictures]

Hani

Videodrome

"Videodrome" (1983, Canadian Film Development Corporation, Famous Players, Filmplan International, David Cronenberg) explores porn and how we view life in our advancingly technology-dependent world in an excellently (Rick Baker) gore-soaked way.

Max Renn (James Woods) is a TV executive for a cable channel. It's the 80s, VHS and Betamax are still shiny new technologies, and he thinks he's found the most interesting thing ever to show on TV: foreign snuff porn of questionable quality! The underground programme is called "Videodrome" and Renn is determined to get to the bottom of it. He has become sinisterly obsessed.

As his life becomes more entwined into the cult-like Videodrome lifestyle, his view on life changes and he begins to see things that he is not sure are real or not... Is he losing his mind or is he becoming part of a new reality? His femme fatale friend, Nicki (Debbie Harry of Blondie), also gets herself involved as she and Renn fall into the Videodrome trap together.

His searchings lead him to the hub of the technological cult, but has he gone too far?

This film was a slighlty different step for Cronenberg at the time and hinted towards where he would take his movies next. Videodrome manages to balance slightly obnoxious cerebral plot with a message about society's obsession with technology, with the confusing, but gory action his audience had come to expect. He manages to make a social comment on video and technology while also exploiting just that as his platform to do so. The film remains ever relevant and the effects make for undated, uncomfortable viewing.

[Image: FilmPlan International, et al]

Hani

End Call

"End Call" (2008, Kiyoshi Yamamoto, Monte Cristo Entertainment, T.O. Entertainment) is a Japanese tech horror. 

A group of schoolgirls come across the Devil's phone number and discover if you phone it at midnight he will grant your greatest wish at the cost of taking the duration of your call from your lifespan. Naturally, he's like a crappy text message Wishmaster, so nothing you wish for ever works out well for you.

The film is not in chronological order and jumps back and forth a lot. It's also not terribly scary, which I was disappointed with considering how freaky some other larger budget J-Horror films are!

The action scenes are few and far between and there's a lot of quiet dialogue. 

One thing the Devil also seems to excel at is running up a large phone bill for his callers, so one girl resorts to becoming a hooker to pay her bill...

Most of the girls' problems are trivial teen girl issues. "Oh, I don't have a boyfriend.", "I'm not popular" and such, although there was a chilling scene with an abusive father that gets his comeuppance. 

Quite an average film and not the best introduction to J-Horror, so if you're new to the genre I recommend watching "One Missed Call" or "The Ring" instead (and no, I don't mean the American remakes!).

Sometimes a film's obscurity is for a reason...

 [Image: T.O. Entertainment]

Hani

The Ring Two

"The Ring Two" (2005, Hideo Nakata, DreamWorks Pictures) is the sequel to the American "The Ring" which I have reviewed earlier here: http://horrorev.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-ring-2002.html

This version is not a remake of the Japanese sequel to "Ring", but in fact an original story of its own.

Naomi Watts returns as Rachel, the mother with the odd little boy who refuses to call her 'mum' or 'mom'. It's been some months since the incident with Samara's spirit and the evil video tape, and Rachel believes she is free of her after getting young Aidan (David Dorfman) to make a copy of the tape and resultantly curse his own grandfather!

Simon Baker (whom you may recognise from 'The Mentalist') makes an appearance as Rachel's boss, Max.

Rachel and Aiden have moved away from the city and are now living in a quiet town in Oregon. She is working for a small town newspaper, and focussing on being with her son. It isn't until a local teen is found dead and facially disfigured in a way similar to Samara's previous victims, that Rachel realises that her actions in the first film have had repercussive effects. Upon seeing Rachel at the side of the body, Samara decides to make her her new mother, and begins to haunt she and Aidan once more.

Whilst the first movie is much more frightening and jumpy, this film has an effective feeling of dread and a build up of tension as you realise that Aidan has more in common with the spooky young girl than at first suspected.

With creepy children and jumpy ghosts, this film satisfies the need for a haunting horror. I would always recommend the Japanese versions over the American ones for spook-factor, but Naomi Watts, David Dorfman and the ever creepy Daveigh Chase (although, her parts are mainly stock footage) keep the film engaging.

Not a bad follow-on film at all.

[Image:DreamWorks Pictures]

 

Hani 

The Ring (2002)

"The Ring" (2002, Gore Verbinski, Dreamworks Pictures) is the American remake of the 1998 Japanese film. Although I prefer the Japanese version and find it to have superior scares, this film is spooky and I highly recommend seeing it! I'm also thinking of trying to pick up an English translation of the book!

The basis of the plot: There is an urban legend of a VHS video tape which, if you see it, will kill you 7 days from first viewing. Some teenagers accidentally view it while in a cabin for the weekend, and soon all die off. Worried aunt, Rachel (Naomi Watts), of one of the deceased begins to investigate this phenomenon upon hearing of the legend and seeing the peculiarly timely deaths. She is also worried for her son, Aidan (David Dorfman), who was very close to his cousin.

In true horror movie form, and fairly reminiscent of "Candyman", Rachel watches the strange tape and then proceeds to show her ex-husband, Noah (Martin Henderson), and so on. Soon it's a race against time to try to solve the tape's origins and stop her impending death, while also experiencing the week-long haunting which comes with the sentence.

I enjoyed Naomi Watts' performance as the determined protagonist, as she slowly unravels the history of the tape and attempts to find a solution in order to help herself and others. She manages be both intense and strong without going into that annoying 'female lead' mode which involves a lot of screaming and hysterics.

Unlike Raimi, when he remade "The Grudge" some years later, Verbinski opted to take the story entirely out of Japan. I think both styles of remake have worked very well, and take nothing away from the story. But I do find "The Grudge" to be generally more scary, mainly because the ghost moves in a much more eerie manner than in this film, taking more styling from the Japanese originals.

The special effects are enjoyable, the tense scenes built up excellently and the enveloping story is good. There is a particular scene that I just can't watch again (I am a horse lover...)!

As I mentioned, I think the only reason this film just isn't as scary as the Japanese version is just the stylistic movements of the ghost girl, (Daveigh Chase), but the plot, acting and haunting scenes are good. And there are definitely scares to be had here, too! I especially enjoy the child actors in this film, who give a very convincing and unsettling performance.

[Image : Dreamworks Pictures]

Hani

Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys

"Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys" (2004, Ted Nicolau, Terry Kelley) is the 9th film in the Puppet Master series and the first cross over with the Demonic Toys Series. Definitely a made-for-TV film. And it's set at Christmas. And that should tell you all you need to know about it!

Ok, Ok, I'll tell you more :)

Robert Toulon (Corey Feldman) is the great-grandnephew (seriously...) of the original Puppet Master, Andre Toulon from the first movie. Robert and his daughter Alexandra (Danielle Keaton) live in a Doll Hospital, surrounded by toys which they repair. They're both kind of weird, like awkward children. I'm going assume that this was intentional.

Robert seems to have a bit of an obsession with bringing the original Toulon puppets back to life... Why, at this particular second, I don't know... but it's handy that he does because the Sharpe Corporation, an evil toy manufacturer run by Erica Sharpe (Vanessa Angel), are spying on him in order to steal his secrets and his puppets... and unfortunately his blood, because that's the main ingredient in the potion!

Erica is also quite childlike, but more like a little spoiled, bratty, girl. She kind of reminds me of Glory from BTVS, but that might just be her dress sense.

Robert and Alexandra work out how to animate the puppets on Christmas eve (ah, the magic of Christmas, bringing murderous puppets to life!) and explain to them that they are their new masters. The Puppets seem cool with that, and don't attack them.

Erica's recent line of Christmas toys are called "Christmas Pals" (damn original!) and they are alive. Well, they're demons inside the toys. The demons are there as Erica's misguided father sold his soul in order to please her with 'living' dolls. In order to control them, she has to sacrifice virgins (usually secretaries) to the demon Bael (who had surprisingly good makeup!).

The box said "Monsters, in-your-face-gore and breast-focused nudity".... there are none of these things, much to my buddy Jim's disappointment. It should have said "Evil toys and puppets, some fake blood and a secretary gets her shirt ripped open and her cleavage bitten by a demonic baby doll".... But I suppose that wouldn't have sounded half so good, right?

The demons are crass and rude, as demons tend to be, and Erica wants Toulon's secrets so that she can make obedient, yet nasty little guard puppets of her own. But she's selling Demonic Toys to children as she hopes to rule the Earth; as any modern business woman does, right? No?

After an attack by the Sharpe company, Robert and Alex flee their home and fix up the puppets with some kind of cyborg weaponry. The puppets seem pleased with this, which is good and well, else our story would have been cut short when Blade decided to cut up Toulon.

But the fun soon moves to the Sharpe company premises, where the puppets face off against the toys in a very retro-styled scene by special effects dude, David Allen, and Toulon seems to take 10 minutes to get past one guy to save his daughter from certain death by iron maiden (the torture device, not the band).

There's also a random cop lady, Jessica (Silvia Suvadova), who inspected the Toulon premises solo, decided she quite fancied a bit of Robert Toulon, and has since just been around, solo... Is it just me, or do cops usually run in pairs??? And how did she know where Toulon's ex-wife's mansion was?!

So who will win? The Puppets with their weapons, or the Demonic Toys with their teeth and apparently eye bursting laughs, I'm looking at you Jack Attack! Well you'll have to watch and see for yourself!

The special effects aren't great for a 00s movie. But the animation of Jack Attack is particularly good, especially when he, snake like, escapes his box. And I think the awkward, almost stop-animation technique adds some charm to the puppets and toys, as this is how I'd picture them moving! Also, I could get really geeky here and bring up the stop-motion master, Ray Harryhausen, and over-analyse by saying that maybe David Allen was paying some homage to him in some way. But then again, maybe it's just a low-budge made-for-TV film, and I'm just a SFX nerd... probably more likely.

Corey Feldman's Robert Toulon character is awkward and a bit nuts, but I find this entertaining. Plus, he keeps tripping over things, which I presume to be part of the plot, or else someone put the mark on the wrong bit of floor for him! He's also got that funny voice thing going on again (you know, the one Chrisian Bale is so fond of mimicking in Batman).

The plot is just nuts, the script is not the best, with lines like "What's the ruckus?" and a need to explain every move of every character, just in case you didn't think what they were doing was in any way to do with plot development.

And as I said, no nudity, other than Corey Feldman in his boxers, a secretary's bra and an evil corporation lady's almost boobs. Oh, and did I mention a particular lack of blood?

Also, Feldman and Keaton don't really look much like father and daughter. But I can assure you, he's about 33-ish in this film, and the pigtails she's sporting indicate 'young teens' in the movies, so I suppose it's ok.

But all in all, I laughed, Jim laughed and now we have something else to watch on Christmas eve along with 'Die Hard' and 'Scrooged'.

[Would you shake hands with Pinhead?

Picture: Sci Fi Pictures]

Hani

One Missed Call (2004)

"One Missed Call" (2004, Takashi Miike, Kadokawa-Daiei) is the Japanese original horror which was then remade by an American company in 2008.

Unlike "The Grudge", where the American remake is almost on par with the Japanese version, "One Missed Call"'s remake was of a much lesser quality.

If you can withstand the subtitles, the 2004 version is really, very creepy.

The premise of the film is that you recieve a call on your mobile phone (or cell phone for all you non-British folk). The phone doesn't ring with your usual ringtone (instead with a creepy little tune) and will ring regardless of whether the phone is off, broken or without a battery. No matter whether you try to answer or not, you always miss the call, and have to fetch a voicemail message.

The voicemail is always set in the future, is from your own number and features the last sounds you make/hear before dying painfully. There's also always a candy sweet in each victim's mouth..., granted sometimes their mouths are quite far away from the rest of their bodies by the time the candy is found...

Creepy stuff!

Now, like "The Grudge" and "The Ring", "One Missed Call"'s ghost girl kills in a domino effect, beginning with Yoko (Anna Nagata) and then working through her phone book...

It's up to Yumi (Kou Shibasaki), Yoko's best friend to try to stop the curse before it's too late for herself! But in order to stop the ghost, she has to follow the clues to the ghosts' beginnings and face some other spectres from the dead girls' past.

But can she convince the angry spirit to stop with the murder? One can only hope.

Nicely gorey with some disturbingly creepy scenes and it may put you off MMS messages for life!

Japanese ghost horror is always a winner with me as it's always creepy, but I sometimes find the differences in culture make it hard to follow. But a shit-scared person staring into the gruesome eyes of death, is a shit-scared person staring into the gruesome eyes of death in every culture, so the importants parts of the film are easy to follow.

I must also admit to jumping nowadays if my phone has an episode and randomly changes its ringtone from a Black Stone Cherry song to one of the preset ringers; Mimiko's gonna get you!

[Picture: Kadokawa-Daiei]

Hani