------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall Rating : 3.5/10
Directed By : Takashi Shimizu
Yűka
Karina
Kippei Shiina
Tetta Sugimoto
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Mar. 22, 2007
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PLOT Thirty-five years after a mass murder, a film director returns to the scene of the crime to recreate the gruesome killings on film. When the production begins in the now abandoned hotel, the cast members begin to see creepy visions and have chilling nightmares. As shooting commences, the actors start suffering the same fates as their characters – the original murder victims. |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| THE REVIEW In REINCARNATION, years ago, a Professor went on a rampage, killing eleven people in a hotel, which including his own family. While committing the crime the deranged man documented it all via a handheld camera, before ultimately turning the knife on himself. It is now the present, and a young filmmaker hopes to recreate the events that happened the day of the massacre. Heading the cast is a you woman named Nagisa Sugiura, she is scheduled to play a nine year old girl that was killed by the man while holding a doll that was precious to her. The filmmakers have obviously altered the character since the young woman playing the girl is much older - But Nagisa is shocked to find she is portraying such a character as she has been seeing visions of the hotel and the said little girl in her her dreams and senses a sort of danger. The danger that Nagisa expected all along becomes reality when the film crew and cast begin dying in various ways, dying in the same manner the victims did in the Professor's self shot video. From the Director of the JU-ON/THE GRUDGE films Takashi Shimizu, comes this psychological thriller called REINCARNATION. Well it's simple as the title suggests it does have to do with reincarnation and previous lives(imagine that), as we later find out that all that are involved with the film about the slain victims, actually ARE the slain victims reincarnated. I reveal this here because before even mid film it becomes blatantly obvious and predictable..... really there is no mystery at all - in fact this is probably the most predictable Asian film I have ever seen, they usually manage to be more intelligent. Other than the element of being reincarnated and all, I honestly did not think this film strayed that far from either JU-ON or THE GRUDGE. See there is a ghostly girl that haunts a young woman, but instead of having a cat for a pet, she carries a beaten up doll....not much difference there. and as for the killer and the victims, the killer seemed to have something come over him that made him do it. And also if I remember correctly part of JU-ON 2 had to do with a film crew filming inside the "haunted" house - while most of the crew ended up dying. To me to plots are just too similar. As much as REINCARNATION is similar to Shimizu's other films in plot it is also similar in scares. When seeing JU-ON for the first time, I was impressed by some of the things I saw, as most of it was new, and creepy... I had never seen anything quite like it at the time. Here in this film, honestly speaking I felt the scares and frights were nothing but the same old stuff we see in any Asian film to come out lately, not to mention in Shimizu's films themselves... To sum it up, I really did not enjoy this film, as it felt almost like watching something I had already seen. Before watching REINCARNATION and knowing who the Director was, I expected something genuinely frightening and chilling, not to mention original. But I guess since Shimizu has spent so much time making so many JU-ON/THE GRUDGE films(too many if you ask me), that just about anything he makes will likely feel the same, since he has never ventured too far out of the box |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| GORE
METER 4.5/10 The gore is pretty good here though, multiple bloody stab wounds and a strangulation hanging stand out. |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| MUSICAL
SCORE 3/10 To me the score was nothing special, in fact I only remember just very little of. Just typical suspense tracks. |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM As I said I didn't have a very enjoyable time with this one. It was kind of boring, to me and not really inventive of any new material. I did however love the creepy doll that was carried by the little girl as it would come alive and talk in some scenes... it looked great. But other than that I wouldn't be quick to recommend this, if you want to see Takashi Shimizu's films, see the JU-ON titles instead... The After Dark Horrorfest set (available individually, or as a boxed set) will be released on March 27, 2007 |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| STILLS | ||||
|
