Kaidan

Aroview: Period J-horror from the director of THE RING relays the ghostly tale of a samurai’s son attempting to escape an ancient curse laid on his family, which rears its eerie head again when his romance with the curse-layer’s daughter goes pear-shaped.

Harking back to an earlier era of Japanese folktale filmmaking, dir. Nakata reassuringly retains some of the popcorn-spilling scare tactics of his earlier frighteners, while trying on the classical atmosphere of a cursed Kabuki romance for size, with admittedly mixed results. Enjoyable enough for established J-horror buffs, with the added bonus of samurai swordplay to distinguish it from the glut of copycat curse-horrors.