THE STORY:
After being asked to consult on a missing family case, Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) grows to suspect that his strange neighbour Nishino (Teruyuki Kagawa) could be the man responsible for their disappearance.
Remember that rather unpleasant influx of sub-par American remakes of East Asian ghost girl movies, such as One Missed Call (2008) and Shutter (2008) to name a couple. The well-versed horror connoisseur may recognise director Kurosawa as part of the original movement for being writer/director of 2001’s Kairo. That’s Pulse (2001) for all you monolingual-oids (and me) out there.
I hesitate to describe Creepy as a slow-burn as it often provokes an immediate “Fuck that!” response, but I implore you that the film’s events would not be nearly as plausible otherwise, and I remind you that Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) was also a gradual builder.
Yes, the slow-burn approach is more than necessary as the true horror of this unnerving psychological skin-crawler is the villain’s seduction of our hero’s lonely wife, Yasuko, played by the beautiful Yûko Takeuchi. Although wholly platonic, mirroring an abusive relationship, he uses that unpredictable barrage of love and hatred to pull her in by pushing her away. It wearies the heart to witness as the kind housewife, isolated by a cold and uncaring new neighbourhood, is easily manipulated by her only source of companionship while her husband’s mind obsesses over the disappearances.
Nishino’s home is horror gold. On the outside it is gated and shrouded in overgrown shrubbery, and on the inside… a dark and deserted squatter’s paradise, far creepier than the ‘Grudge’ house. Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised to find the Candyman lurking there. And what happens there is just as grim.
LAST WORDS:
You won’t find vengeful ghost girls haunting your attic, crawling out of your TV, calling you on the phone or materialising out of your internet connection here. Sorry. What you will find is an unspeakable fiend who will creep under your skin as he creeps into the minds of his victims. Does an anti-social society create victims or killers? Perhaps both? Or is loneliness the real killer?
After being asked to consult on a missing family case, Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) grows to suspect that his strange neighbour Nishino (Teruyuki Kagawa) could be the man responsible for their disappearance.
Remember that rather unpleasant influx of sub-par American remakes of East Asian ghost girl movies, such as One Missed Call (2008) and Shutter (2008) to name a couple. The well-versed horror connoisseur may recognise director Kurosawa as part of the original movement for being writer/director of 2001’s Kairo. That’s Pulse (2001) for all you monolingual-oids (and me) out there.
I hesitate to describe Creepy as a slow-burn as it often provokes an immediate “Fuck that!” response, but I implore you that the film’s events would not be nearly as plausible otherwise, and I remind you that Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) was also a gradual builder.
Yes, the slow-burn approach is more than necessary as the true horror of this unnerving psychological skin-crawler is the villain’s seduction of our hero’s lonely wife, Yasuko, played by the beautiful Yûko Takeuchi. Although wholly platonic, mirroring an abusive relationship, he uses that unpredictable barrage of love and hatred to pull her in by pushing her away. It wearies the heart to witness as the kind housewife, isolated by a cold and uncaring new neighbourhood, is easily manipulated by her only source of companionship while her husband’s mind obsesses over the disappearances.
Nishino’s home is horror gold. On the outside it is gated and shrouded in overgrown shrubbery, and on the inside… a dark and deserted squatter’s paradise, far creepier than the ‘Grudge’ house. Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised to find the Candyman lurking there. And what happens there is just as grim.
LAST WORDS:
You won’t find vengeful ghost girls haunting your attic, crawling out of your TV, calling you on the phone or materialising out of your internet connection here. Sorry. What you will find is an unspeakable fiend who will creep under your skin as he creeps into the minds of his victims. Does an anti-social society create victims or killers? Perhaps both? Or is loneliness the real killer?
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