Review of Marebito (2004) by Max A — 22 Jan 2008

Mr. Grudge occasionally makes movies other than Grudge (not often though, he's currently working on his 7th), and they aren't always very good... Here we have such a case...

The biggest problem is perhaps the most obvious one - budget. This movie clearly has lofty cinematic aspirations, but only a television bankroll. Some of the more elaborate scenes end up looking very "Land of the Lost" - in other words, cheesy. The Japanese have pretty active imaginations, so they don't always require things to look fantastic and their effects don't always have to be special.

This movie moves pretty slow trying to build tension, but the story is so absurd that it seems more like a fantasy than a horror film.

Basically, it's about a guy who is a complete social leper - he carries around a video camera and is obsessed with documenting everything and then reviewing it. He finds himself in some underworld where he finds a naked chick chained up. He takes her home like an adopted homeless cat and discovers she's a vampire... this doesn't bother him at all.

Eventually of course, he discovers she requires blood to survive, so he starts feeding his stray naked kitty vampire lady on his own at first -then on other animals he finds or kills. Eventually he starts bringing her blood from the human animals he murders.

There's more to it than that, but I'm not going to give it completely away... It's an okay story - the execution just isn't there. They needed to put this in the hands of a more creative director or perhaps have given it a larger budget. Either way, it's just going to end up being okay. There's nothing really scary about it and all the gore is just red syrup and squishy noises - more laughable than horrific.

I suggest passing on this one.