The found footage subgenre has exploded in the past 14 years with the release of The Blair Witch Project, leading to franchises such as Quarantine (REC in the US), Paranormal Activity, and myriad other low-budget frightfests, but none of them ever come close to the sheer authenticity and terror of Noroi: The Curse ("Noroi" actually means "curse" in Japanese, so the title is redundant), a little-known film quietly released in 2005.
When most people try to name Japanese horror films they've seen, they name such films as Ringu, Ju-On, Kairo, or Audition. While all of these are excellent, none are as deeply unsettling as Noroi: The Curse.
Without giving too much away, Noroi is the story of a paranormal investigator and his cameraman who are investigating a series of mysterious disappearances centering around a woman named Junko Ishii, a middle-aged recluse, and her son, and encounter a young girl named Kana, who has psychokinetic powers. Eventually, they team up with a famous TV personality and a hikikomori who covers himself in aluminum foil and keeps freaking out about "worms."
Noroi takes itself very seriously, and splices footage from Japanese TV and public access interviews, as well as local historical records and urban legends to provide subtle hints as to what's going on, and does a fantastic job of establishing and maintaining its authenticity right to the ending credits.
The sheer, disturbing beauty of Noroi is that everything is constructed to be as real as possible. There is only about 15 seconds of CGI, and it is startlingly effective, and absolutely not anything the audience would expect. The actual paranormal phenomena in question stays true to traditional Japanese folklore; in fact, I believe that were anything to actually happen, it would work exactly as presented in the film.
Nothing in Noroi is ever expected or predictable; the movie works so well because it has no convention. When one actually discovers what's going on in the second hour of the movie, one's jaw will hit the floor, as it is much, much worse than any monster that could possibly appear on screen.
Noroi works so well because is not a movie that will shock you with jump scares or fast cuts to disturbing images. It doesn't intend to gross you out by showing you blood and guts, no girls coming out of your TV, or bloody mothers gurgling down the stairs; rather it is what's underneath the events in the film that will keep you up after you watch it. The very story is terrifying, and how the film handles what it has presented to you when the credits roll only serves to drive the whole thing home and make your insomnia that much worse. No other found footage films ever address how they actually got "found" and released to the public. Noroi takes special care to include this detail to the audience's satisfaction, and that is one of the primary reasons why it is so utterly horrifying.
Noroi: The Curse is freely available on Youtube in its entirety You can view it here
Happy belated Halloween!
