Movie: Reincarnation

[gategrrl]

I saw this movie last night on late night SciFi Channel - it's what's called a "J-Horror" flick, directed by the same guy who brought "Ringy" and "Juon" to the screen - both which were remade into US productions (and he directed the US productions, too).

I missed the first half hour or so, but whoa, some interesting visuals and jumbling of past and present, "real" and movie...it's very meta, and it has some kick-ass effects going on in it, as well. The ending is a real kicker, too.

It involves, as the title suggests, Reincarnation. And the vehicle is an inexplicable set of eleven murders, caught on 8mm film by the killer, a college professor who apparently wants to test some theory of reincarnation. The professor murdered his two children, and his wife, and several staff and other guests at a hotel. Then, years later, a young director decides to produce a film of the killings, on a set AND at the actual site of the murders. That's where reality gets skewed. Are you watching the filming? Are you watching the actual murders filmed by the killer? Are the actors playing the victims reincarnated, only to repeat being murdered all over again? If you're the type to love meta, this is the movie for it. And, of course, the final question is, if the professor doing the murders killed himself, and he was expecting to be reincarnated, who did HE reincarnate into? It's not exactly a ghost story (but it is) and it's not exactly a mind-thriller (but it is). When you find out, at the very end, what you've actually been seeing and what's real and what's not (or is it?), it's a good payoff.

If you get a chance to see this, watch it. Have patience. It's slow to start, and builds to suitable creepiness.

Comments

[mdhenry.livejournal.com]

We started to watch but then got interested in other things--as you do. The opening scene was freaky as hell.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

What was the opening scene? I might have to rent or buy a cheap copy off of Amazon to see the entire thing.

I like The Others, too, which WAS a total ghost story, for the slow build-up and the pay-off and creepy atmosphere. Plus it was scary, but not TOO scary. Horror movies/TV shows freak me out (usually) unlike books. Well, unless you're talking Amityville Horror. THAT book freaked me right out when I was in Jr High. Brrr.

[mdhenry.livejournal.com]

It starts in a bathroom, a truck driver is looking at himself in the mirror, when his skin grays like a corpse. He shakes it off as a figment of his imagination and drives off to do his delivery. In the cab of the truck he listens to the radio. It's night. A story comes on about the hotel massacre that factors so heavily into the rest of the film. He reaches down to turn it off. When he looks back at the curvy dark road, a man is standing there and he runs him over. He gets out to see if it really happened, and notices a wind blowing through the trees. The branches seperate and in the area around him ghosts appear out of the darkness staring out at him. They're identical in the distance like stone markers, unmoving. He scuttles back to the truck, rocking himself in fear. The camera focuses on his face, he's covering his eyes with his hands. It pans back and you realize that all the ghosts are in the cab, their faces inches away from the trucker's. Staring.

Freaked us out!