The question is do you want story or gore?
If you want a story over special effects and blood splattering then this is the movie for you.
The story involves a film crew going to the home of a long dead artist in order to film the murals painted on all of the walls of the house The paintings, which almost no one ever saw while the artist was alive have now become completely unseen by anyone living. The crew feels recording the legendary paintings will be the perfect addition to their film. The towns folk of course know that this is not a good idea and that the house is not a place that should be disturbed and they try to prevent the visit.
Of course the crew goes and of course bad things begin to happen. What happens and why, is the rest of the movie.
The joy of this film for me is that this is one of the rare horror films that works from start to finish with no real bumps in logic. What is happening or more importantly why things are happening is reasonable to the point of making some people I know want to scream. I can't really explain that without telling you the end and I will not do that under pain of death.
SPOILER ABOUT A DIFFERENT FILM AND AN ALLUSION TO THIS ONE: Its like the end of 13th Warrior where the final battle ends suddenly because the lead bad guy is killed and his men ride off. Many people I know hate the film because the battle is cut so short and seemingly out of left field, but if you think about it, that is what would happen. The same goes here, you find out whats happening and you'll either love it because it makes sense or you hate it because it seems to come from left field, but really doesn't. END SPOILERS
With all of the Horror films coming out of Japan and elsewhere I'm shocked that this one never was released here in th US, especially in light of the fact that legendary make-up effects man Dick Smith was responsible for the effects.
If you love haunted house thrillers and well plotted ghost stories that actually play fair then see this movie. I know its difficult to do but its worth the effort to find it, its one of the great lost jewels of horror.
If you want a story over special effects and blood splattering then this is the movie for you.
The story involves a film crew going to the home of a long dead artist in order to film the murals painted on all of the walls of the house The paintings, which almost no one ever saw while the artist was alive have now become completely unseen by anyone living. The crew feels recording the legendary paintings will be the perfect addition to their film. The towns folk of course know that this is not a good idea and that the house is not a place that should be disturbed and they try to prevent the visit.
Of course the crew goes and of course bad things begin to happen. What happens and why, is the rest of the movie.
The joy of this film for me is that this is one of the rare horror films that works from start to finish with no real bumps in logic. What is happening or more importantly why things are happening is reasonable to the point of making some people I know want to scream. I can't really explain that without telling you the end and I will not do that under pain of death.
SPOILER ABOUT A DIFFERENT FILM AND AN ALLUSION TO THIS ONE: Its like the end of 13th Warrior where the final battle ends suddenly because the lead bad guy is killed and his men ride off. Many people I know hate the film because the battle is cut so short and seemingly out of left field, but if you think about it, that is what would happen. The same goes here, you find out whats happening and you'll either love it because it makes sense or you hate it because it seems to come from left field, but really doesn't. END SPOILERS
With all of the Horror films coming out of Japan and elsewhere I'm shocked that this one never was released here in th US, especially in light of the fact that legendary make-up effects man Dick Smith was responsible for the effects.
If you love haunted house thrillers and well plotted ghost stories that actually play fair then see this movie. I know its difficult to do but its worth the effort to find it, its one of the great lost jewels of horror.