This film is the perfect example that when it comes to horror, there can be good ideas but that doesn't guarantee the film will also be good. Noroi is a found footage film from Japan, the only one I have seen from that country I believe, and it explores the always entertaining concept of an ancient curse.
Found footage horror movies were very shocking not so long ago, I still remember the first time I saw the Spanish found footage film REC in the cinema and it was the scariest experience I ever had in that place, mainly because I didn't know anything about the movie. Now, getting shocked by a found footage film isn't that common. The last one I saw was the Norwegian movie called Trollhunter but it was not a horror movie but rather a fantasy one.
Noroi tries to be a hardcore horror movie with supernatural events affecting regular people. However, not everyone in this film is a normal person, there are at least 2 characters that aren't normal in any sense. The found footage is the result of a researcher who was investigating paranormal events in Japan and ended up inside a rabbit hole much deeper than anything he could have imagined.
The film loses a lot of its found-footage credibility when the cameraman refuses to stop filming even if his own life is in danger. This doesn't make much sense, anyone would simply drop the camera and deal with any life-threatening situation as the main priority. This wasn't the case, especially in one of the last scenes.
The movie doesn't have that many scary scenes and the buildup was also disappointing to me. The one scene that could really be disturbing have very poor special effects and this made it look like a crappy attempt at scaring the viewers. The idea behind this story had potential but the way they executed everything left much to be desired. I think this same story produced in anime would have been much better, which is to say a lot. And doing it as a regular movie would have been most certainly the best choice.
I was expecting to be all creeped out but sadly this didn't happen. When it comes to horror movies that use the found footage technique I would recommend besides the REC Spanish film I mentioned before, another good one that also gave me shills called Lake Mungo. Noroi could have been good, but it feels like a messy film with so many weaknesses that ruin the experience. Japanese horror tends to be excellent even in anime (the anime series called "Another" is awesome), but in the found footage sub-genre it can improve a lot.
The best
- Potentially good idea behind the story.
The worst
- Not scary, especially.
- Poor special effects.
More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0930083/
Review: AA
In numbers: 6/10