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Reincarnation |
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Several
years ago, in the 1970s to be more exact,
a professor brutally murdered eleven people,
including two young children, in a hotel. Now, an
actress has been cast to star in the film based on
this story. At first she's very exited about the
part, but it doesn't take long before she starts to
wonder if this was really such a smart idea since
she starts to have visions of dead people walking
around - but she's the only one who can see them.
Meanwhile, people in the area are disappearing into
thin air, could this have something to do
with the hotel?
It feels like it was only yesterday when I couldn't
wait for the next big Asian horror movie to come
out. Time sure has changed rapidly. I barely even
get exited when I hear that a new Jap horror flick
has been released these days. It's the same story
all over again time after time, with only some fine
tweaking to make them a bit different. Yes, Asian
ghost stories have become what American slashers are;
common, unoriginal and soul-less. Sure, there are
still a couple of treasures to be found, but it
seems as if Japan has completely ran out of ideas.
Reincarnation however is something we're not completely
used to. It's a Japanese horror flick which feels
like an American horror movie. I'm even going to go
as far as to calling this a "The Shining" rip-off.
People around the world have praised this movie, but
I honestly found it to be very average and incredibly
unoriginal. It's really just a mix between Takashi's
"The Grudge" movies and "The Shining". Fortunately
for Takashi, the mix works relatively well at times
and even though the suspense which made the Grudge
movies shine is completely gone, it's still a pretty
entertaining movie.
The story revolves around an actress who has been
cast to star in a horror flick based on a true
story. It takes place inside a creepy old hotel,
which we quickly learn is haunted by the ghosts of
the people who were killed by a mad professor in
the 1970's. Naturally, our actress (played by Takako
Fuji) is the only one who can see these ghosts.
The movie takes several turns on its way and provides
us with entertaining and unpredictable twists. It
was also nice to see Takako Fuji, who we're used to
seeing as the ghost in the Grudge movies, in a
starring role which she handled flawlessly.
If there's one thing that I've learnt about Takashi
it's that he likes to keep things unexplained for
as long as possible. He also seems to want to throw
in several stories into one movie, only to tie them
together as we get closer to the climax. All of this
is handled very well here in Reincarnation and it
feels much less confusing here than when he attempted
to do the same thing in Ju-On: The Grudge 2.
Ultimately, Reincarnation is still a very unoriginal
horror flick though. It never dares to discover new
territory and it is all way too familiar. As I've
said before; I'm simply sick of creepy ghost girls
because they're just not as creepy anymore as they
once were. Hell, I've seen them so many times now
that I wouldn't even be scared if I saw one in the
hallway. With that being said however, I think that
Reincarnation is one of the better Asian horror
movies that I've seen as of lately so it might be
worth checking out. But if I were you, I'd watch one
of the "classics" instead like "A Tale Of Two Sisters".
Some blood splatter, nothing special. More implied
violence than actual gore.
Just like the movie, beautiful for eyes and ears,
but incredibly generic. The strings and violins
serve their purpose but it feels like we've heard
this a thousand times before.
Unoriginal and Americanized horror flick which does
manage to entertain but ultimately fails to deliver
scares and suspense. I appreciate that Takashi at
least tried to do something new with the whole ghost
concept but it still felt a bit too recycled for my
taste. It's a decent movie but I think you're better
off sticking to the classics.
Review By: AnthroFred
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