Effective

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2003)

Journalist stumbles upon a creepy video tape that she believes is killing all who watch it.
There are clearly two types of people in the world. Those who find stuff like this scary, and those who do not. Its quite reminiscent of Stir of Echoes, and follows the same basic storyline with a few twists. I havent read the Japanese novel upon this was based. What I have read, however, is tons of stuff by the Victorian horror master MR James. He has a tale called the Mezzotint, about a man who buys an engraving and watches in horror as a diabolical event is slowly reenacted on the engraving. The images shown on the video in this film, and the overall mood I found to be quite evocotive of that particular tale, and nearly as effective. The film does a wonderful job of producing the kind of images that are only otherwise found in nightmares. Whether the resolution and explanation of the how and why will satisfy you is another story. I thought it could have been better. But that is not to say I wasnt totally creeped by it, and that I'm not still. It will most certainly have you hearing each and every creak in your abode as you sit late at night in the dark while this plays. Naomi Watts, my fav!