Tomie

Aroview: A severed head in a paper bag mutates into the film's titular school girl from hell in this malevolent Japanese horror offering genuine creeps under the influence of the post-RING viral/vengeful spirit craze.

Spawned from a trail of unsolved homicides where the victims were all named 'Tomie', this treads familiar terrain in generating terror via a seemingly unstoppable evil passed on from one person to the next. Boasting a truly disturbing apparition as its monster at large (played with a sadist's streak by Miho Kanno), dir. Oikawa frames the nightmare with considerable lucidity and skill. Though stylish, the film also falls prey to its own perplexities, and like THE GRUDGE, lets ambiguity run wild at key moments.

The first in a five film series.

more matches…