Japanese horror films have a reputation for being both creative and being actually scary. Most American horror films by contrast aspire to little more than gore and jump-scares. This one was recommended by a regular on Broken Forum and because it has been a while since I have watched an entry in the  J-Horror genre, I decided to give this one a whirl.

As it turns out, despite some decently creepy moments, Noroi fails at being genuinely scary. It does succeed somewhat in being creative. The frame story here is that most of it is a documentary by a Japanese journalist who specializes in the paranormal and so there is naturally plenty of “found footage” scenes. Interspersed is footage from fake Japanese reality shows that focus on psychic powers and visits to haunted sites. These elements add a degree of verisimilitude that is much appreciated.

Unfortunately, they also add to the running time of just under two hours, unusually long by horror film standards. While the disparate elements are interesting enough on their own and I like , except for pigeons flying into windows which feels like old hat, they add up to a whole that is less than the sum of its parts. I liked how the journalist methodically pieces the  story together but the string of revelations fails to build upon one another to reach a satisfying climax and many twists can be easily predictable from a mile away.

Noroi also suffers from the lack of a central gimmick that makes the best J-Horror films so distinctive such as the cursed videotape and crawling out of a television trick in Ring. Its large cast of characters also prevents the audience from sympathizing strongly with any single character and weakens the sense of horror when bad things happen. The result is a take on horror that is perhaps more grounded in reality but also less dramatic and less scary.

For these reasons, despite some cool ideas in the use of the mockumentary format and reality shows, I’d judge this one a failure. Despite the length, the plot just isn’t that interesting and it certainly isn’t scary enough.