This movie wasn't at all what I expected from it. It's being somewhat a mix of an art house film and a modern Japanese exploitation horror flick. So in short, it's bloody and artsy but it's not being really good and successful as either an horror or an art house type of movie.
First of all, something that often bugs me about modern Japanese horror flicks is how low-budget they are looking. Cheap sets, cheap lighting, fake gore. Yes, everything is present in this movie as well its cheapness often can take you really out of the movie.
But what mostly was disappointing to me was its story. I mean, the concept sounds so promising and surely they could and also really should had come up with something more interesting and good for the actual movie. What is really the problem with its story is that it doesn't seem able to keep focus. For a movie that's almost completely set in an elevator it's a shockingly messy told movie. It takes a while before the movie finally kicks in and after that, every time I thought that the movie was going into an interesting direction, it completely changed course. You could call this surprising but bad or annoying are some words that I would rather use.
It's one of those movies that thinks it's being really clever but the movie is just too often either predictable or annoying with all of its twists and oddness. It also really makes this movie a bit of a mess to watch.
Yes, this movie can get a really odd one to watch. Hiroki Yamaguchi seemed to be full with plenty of ideas but the execution seems only halve, halve, which again is also really partly due to its restrained budget, so in this case you perhaps really can't blame the director for anything. Who knows, he might be capable of delivering something really good, if only given the right budget next time. Seems unlikely to happen though, since director Hiroki Yamaguchi hasn't made a movie since this one and prior to this he did only amateur stuff and shorts. So this was his big movie and I doubt it was a financially successful one. Slim chance he is ever going to get a new chance, unless he's capable of raising the right amount of money himself somehow.
Not the worst attempt I have ever seen but I also just can't think of any reason why you should ever go watch this film.
5/10
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