Reincarnation (2005)

Original title: Rinne

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Writers: Takashi Shimizu, Masaki Adachi

Composer: Kenji Kawai

Starring: Yuka, Karina, Kippei Shina, Tetta Sugimoto, Shun Oguri, Marika Matsumoto, Mantaro Koichi, Atsushi Haruta, Miki Sanjo, Mao Sasaki, Hiroto Ito, Takako Fuji, Yasutoki Furuya, Tomoko Mochizuki, Hiroshi Okazaki, Taro Suwa, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Shoichiro Masumoto

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Death Is Only The Beginning

Plot: A Japanese actress begins having strange visions and experiences after landing a role in a horror film about a real-life murder spree that took place over forty years ago.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

The most shocking part of seeing this was no jump scares.  It's a modern horror movie, and the type of horror that thrives on jump scares, and there's not a single one.  I'm beside myself.   It's also a good movie.  Like a lot of Asian horror I've seen recently, the buildup is slow but the final act reveal or culmination of everything that's come before it is very satisfying and gives reason for the earlier pacing.  This is one where you think you know what's going on but it ends up taking a left turn before the finish and I dug it.  I feel compelled to mention the lack of jump scares.  People/ghosts appear all over the place and it freaks the main character out but there's no loud music or sounds associated with it, making her (and our, I suppose) reactions more genuine.  All other aspects of the picture are very good as well and it's only about an hour and a half which is a major plus as it seems like a lot of Asian horror runs too long at closer to two hours.  The Lionsgate After Dark Horrorfest DVD presents the film with a nice looking anamorphic widescreen print and the extras you get are an introduction by the director (less than a minute and the gist of it is that this is a different kind of ghost story than his two JU-ON films and his two English remakes, THE GRUDGE), an hour long making of documentary, 11 minutes with the director recounting his memories of the picture, about a half hour of deleted scenes with optional commentary and 13 minutes of trailers (non anamorphic widescreen) of Lionsgate horror films.