"Spiritual Curse": Have you ever seen a horror movie full of realism?

Lillian 2022-04-11 08:01:01

This article is original (published on the "Yipian Space" public account)

When it comes to Japanese horror movies, everyone must be familiar with them. The "Midnight Bell", which is known as the pinnacle of horror movies, and the "The Grudge" series, which are deeply admired by horror movie fans, are all from Japan.

The film we are going to watch today borrows the videotape of "Midnight Bell", and also has the curse ability of "The Grudge", so let's walk into "Supernatural Curse" with the editor.

1. The sense of reality brought by the shooting method of pseudo-documentary

If a horror film is to be successful, it must not only achieve a terrifying effect, but also need to make the audience believe it subconsciously. The film cleverly adopted the way of DV documentary, this kind of production investment is low, the sense of immersion is strong, and the effect is undeniable.

In fact, this kind of shooting method was first created in 1999's "Blair Witch", and then many films have followed suit, such as "Ghost Record", "Death Video", etc., all of which have achieved great success. Supernatural Spell is even more outstanding.

The director started to use flashbacks to tell the audience bluntly that Kobayashi Yawen was an explorer of supernatural events and had disappeared after a fire, and then restored his experience through the DV video record left by Kobayashi. The film first introduces the background that DV recording is the current pop culture recording life, so that the impression of "this is a documentary" is engraved in the audience's mind.

DV's first point of view has very real lens shakes, shakes, and drops. It seems to be shot randomly, but it conveys information accurately. Many news reports and expert interviews were added to show the daily culture of the Japanese people to the audience, such as the "group suicide" incident that reflected Japan's "suicide culture" and so on.

These seemingly real news reports allow the audience to immerse themselves in the daily life full of Japanese cultural atmosphere, which greatly increases the realism of this pseudo-documentary film.

But the pseudo-documentary also has its shortcomings. When the audience does not understand this shooting method, they will feel that the film narrative is bland and the content is chaotic. Some of them cannot adapt to the first perspective and even feel dizzy, which greatly reduces the viewing experience.

All in all, the advantages of this shooting method outweigh the disadvantages, which is worthy of admiration. And because the film is too real, many people think it's a real thing, and even found Mr. Xiaolin's blog, birth certificate, etc., which just shows the success of "Spiritual Mantra", which gives full play to the advantages of pseudo-documentary.

2. The pieced together trunk is more storytelling

Because the film has many interludes and flashbacks, the content of the story is relatively chaotic, so clarifying the branch lines is very important for us to understand the plot of the film. The story of the film is roughly divided into four branches:

Article 1: The cry of a baby in the ovary of the mysterious forty-year-old woman Jun Ishii;

Article 2: The disappearance of the super girl Kanai;

Article 3: The bizarre behavior of actress Marika;

Article 4: The perception of the psychic Hori Mitsuo;

The seemingly unrelated story lines are strung together by Kobayashi as a seeker and witness to form a complete puzzle. The "puzzle movie" that forms the backbone of this branch is Michael Dougherty's "Don't mess with the kids," which also uses a non-linear approach to tell four intertwined stories.

The reason for its strong storytelling is that the pseudo-documentary has many trivial video materials, video clips and negatives. When watching, the audience needs to combine all types of video materials to obtain information and associate the upper and lower storylines, with exploratory The narrative makes the story full of mystery, and the sense of substitution is enhanced to the extreme.

Even if some of the scenes are a bit lengthy, it is more real with the appearance of this pseudo-documentary, and the nature of its suspenseful exploration also gives the audience space to think and is more immersive.

3. Japanese ghost culture in movies

If you have seen "Midnight Bell" and "The Grudge" mentioned at the beginning or other Japanese horror movies, you will find that these movies are inseparable from "curse", "wraith" and "sacrificial sacrifice".

The culprit in the movie, "Blessed Soul", is a kind of witchcraft in Japanese folklore, a kind of "curse" created by the underworld method (this is why Mr. Kobayashi named this image "curse". reason). Because the resentment power of "soul of evil" is too powerful, the people of Xialumao Village hold "ghost sacrifices" every year to suppress them.

In fact, every country has this kind of culture. Because the Chinese and Japanese cultures have the same origin, the "ceremonies" in our country are similar to the "ceremonies" in Japanese culture. In Oriental movies, we are better at using this kind of "Eastern horror" hidden in the cultural core, which is different from the "visual horror" of the West, which focuses more on psychology.

Just like "Spiritual Spell", it uses details, suspense, atmosphere, etc. to let the horror penetrate into the hearts of the audience step by step.

In addition, because Japan is an island country, it is often infested by water hazards and has a strong sense of doomsday, so in Japanese culture, "water" represents death and has a place in horror films, such as "Ghost Story". In this film, Xialumao Village has long been silent in the water, so Mari's "practice" on the water also implies that danger is coming.

But there is a place in this film that goes beyond the myth of ghosts and gods, making the film "tall". The psychic Hori Mitsuo doesn't just see ghosts and gods, his "perception" is the "electromagnetic" induction in the movie setting, a kind of brain wave activity, so Hori Mitsuo's body and home are covered with aluminum paper to avoid ghosts coming out , which explains why he ended up in a narrow sewer pipe.

Fourth, the end

"Spiritual Spell" is a very unique horror film, which is infinitely close to reality in terms of shooting techniques and narrative methods. Bringing a more real sense of experience under the cover of a pseudo-documentary, following the side quests to explore the truth of the "curse", the film also incorporates folk culture and enhances the cultural connotation.

However, as a big country of horror movies, Japan has not had outstanding works in recent years. Most of them are frying "Sadako", which lacks innovation. However, we still expect Japan to be able to create a movie that does not lose "Midnight Bell" in the future. " and "Spiritual Spell" masterpiece.

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Extended Reading
  • Lacey 2022-04-11 09:01:08

    Although this film is a pseudo-documentary, it's okay, it's not panic, I'm not dizzy [laughs]. The various scattered events are finally integrated. The mode of finding the truth in this type of horror film is very serious and comfortable here. , especially if the wife set herself on fire or filmed it, and the drama received bad reviews, so it's a good work.

  • Katrine 2022-04-13 09:01:07

    God, show me a decent horror movie

Noroi quotes

  • Mitsuo Hori: My God! The pigeons!

  • Masafumi Kobayashi: No matter how terrifying, I want the truth.