Koji Shiraishi
Noroi

Everything begins with the fire at the house of Kobayashi, a paranormal journalist; his body is not found while his wife's is discovered charred. The documentary video that Kobayashi was filming is recovered, concerning ancient legends of the village of Shimokage, submerged by an artificial lake in 1978.

Shot with a handheld camera, "Noroi" can be classified as a mockumentary, that is, a fake (?) documentary that shows us the alleged search for the existence of paranormal presences, particularly the legend of Kagutaba.

From the outset, we enter into the distressing atmosphere, immersing ourselves along with Kobayashi in this intricate investigation. The first twenty minutes are disturbing enough to keep the viewer's attention and make them question whether what they are seeing is all fake or not. Well, in my opinion, everything that happens after the first twenty minutes will almost entirely remove your doubt.

With characters that are little more than “contrived” and a story that connects almost perfectly, the film loses many points in terms of credibility, which is serious for a mockumentary.

With this, I do not mean that the film does not arouse fear; on the contrary, there are quite terrifying and suggestive scenes, such as those at the temple and the ending, and this is certainly gratifying, because "Noroi" is a film that manages to convey terror as few have succeeded in doing in recent years.

The atmosphere is well constructed, and this helps considerably, also enhanced by the handheld filming, which captures every corner of those eerie and grim villages.

In this, one can see the effort with which the director, Koji Shiraishi, has created the entire film, but, alas, it errs too much on the side of naivety, paying too much attention to the story by refining it in every detail, but neglecting the fact that the film noticeably loses its mockumentary characterization and increasingly resembles a real movie.

In the end, I was left a bit with a bitter taste because if it had been made with proper care, I would probably have been writing about one of the scariest films ever made.

Despite this, Noroi remains a good product, and I recommend watching it, but please, watch it strictly with the lights off, otherwise, I doubt it will give you the fear effect.

A film like this deserves considerable immersion in the character of Kobayashi; you should let yourself be dragged along with him in the investigation. I admit it's not easy.

Enjoy your viewing.