Rinne (2005)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films To Die For.

Rinne (a.k.a. Reincarnation)

A Japanese Horror film not unlike The Grudge (same director, in fact), this one seemed to me to be half Japanese ghost story, half The Shining, and half Night Of The Living Dead. About 35 years ago or so, a man killed eleven people staying in a hotel, including his family and himself. The only survivor was the wife. Now, a Japanese director is filming a movie based on this tragedy. The trick is, the murderer from the past tragedy was doing an experiment with reincarnation, and now all the poor souls alive today that were reincarnated from the souls of the 11 people killed are being drawn back to the hotel to die once again. And their souls are seeking vengeance on the person who inherited the soul of the murderer.

I enjoyed this movie. It was definitely better than The Grudge 2 which I saw recently, but to be fair, this one was in Japanese, and I saw The Grudge 2 in English. I really liked how it was sort of a story within a story, in that the movie was about making a movie based on a real life event (within the movie world). And then you had the parallels between the original tragedy and the reincarnated souls, so there was a lot of reciprocal story-telling going on that made the experience rather interesting. I also really enjoyed the ending. It took a bit of a turn, and the way it ultimately ended hit me in a kind of psychological way. I recommend it.

Reasons for banning: The only reason I can imagine this movie wouldn't get a regular run is because it's in Japanese. You don't see the Japanese versions of The Ring and The Grudge playing in most theatres, you see their English remakes. I thought it was thoroughly refreshing to see a Japanese movie at the theatres. Of course, I've had lots of practice reading subtitles.