Fatal Frame (2014) Movie Review

Fatal Frame is a good teen drama, but not as a horror film.

Director: Mari Asato

Starring: Ayami Nakajō, Aoi Morikawa

Studios: Kadokawa Pictures

Release Date: September 26, 2014 (Japan)

December 2015 (Philippines)

Plot: 
A curse is plaguing the students of an all-girl dormitory which involves an old superstition. According to the belief, if you kiss the photo of the one you love when midnight strikes, you two will be together forever. One of the girls, Kasumi Nuhara adores popular girl Aya Tsukimori. So after stumbling unto a mysterious photo of Aya, she decided to do the said ritual. But after doing that, she starts experiencing weird, unexplained things around her until she just disappeared. Soon, other girls start vanishing for no apparent reason as more secrets are revealed that might be linked to the said curse.

Honestly, I have never played the survival video game that this film was based on. But according to what I know, the original video game series were all about this mysterious object that can be used to capture and defeat spirits- the Camera Obscura. But this film clearly has other plans and decided not to follow the video games story. 

Although I must say that the camera obscura stuff is quite interesting, I think heir decision to create a new storyline for the film was a great idea.

The film's biggest highlight is it's story: a web of lies, mysteries, and deaths. The story also features a host of really interesting characters that made the whole film stand out from the rest of the J-horror films I've seen. It focuses on some lesbian characters, which is new for me to see in a J-Horror movie and in Asian horror movies genre in general.

Someone's staring at you!

The films also utilizes some really great cinematography and other audio visual cues to get that really creepy atmosphere. This is evident all throughout the film. The settings, the colors and sad, depressing music adds that melancholic tone to the film, which I think is perfect. The film's characters, as mentioned previously, were fun to watch despite the story being a slog. It's more of a slow burn type of horror movie, as it focuses it's first hour in building up it's characters' relations and lives. It takes time to show what they're going through as normal teenage girls. 

The only problem i have with this film is that it's not scary at all. It works really great as a teen drama, as it centers on the difficulties of being a teenage girl in an era where loving another from your own gender is prohibited. It's works good as a bit of mystery as a web of lies and deceit is the main reason why this curse existed in the first place. But it doesn't work as a horror film as it doesn't offer anything to be scared of. Particularly the ghost in the film. She's not really threatening and even look creepy.  

Final Verdict: If the film was actually scary, then this would have been the best J-horror film that I have seen to date. But this film is still worth the look if you are looking for some nice J-Horror flick for the night.

Rating : 

 ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ 

https://youtu.be/5Ydpq0IKruA