The film centres on a young, precocious neuroscientist, Tomohiko Kataoka (Daigo Nishihata), who visits a secluded island to become part of a research team exploring the links between the mind and virtual reality. Tomohiko receives intermittent apparitions of the dead woman haunting the island and its inhabitants. The apparitions manifest within their virtual reality experiments as if the vengeful ghost has found a pathway through this man-made medium.
The style is no different from THE GRUDGE series, where the ghost of the brutally departed victim seeks revenge, but this time around, the attacks happen within an imagined reality. Or do they? The supernatural meets the futuristic world as a plotline is new territory for Shimizu as he marries the unpredictability of both.
The film’s highlight happens in the sea, and the experience of drowning is virtually experienced within the confines of a lab. That could be the most original this horror instalment gets as most elements remain faithful to the scare tactics of the previous GRUDGE movies. It is a novel premise on its own, although the murky waters of genre blending extend the audience’s experience of reality itself.
The biggest film festival in Australia is the Sydney Film Festival which was held for twelve days last 8-19 June 2022, with so many film premieres from prestigious film festivals such as Berlinale, Venice, Cannes, and Sundance, among others. Twelve films vied for competition and the following are my favourites.
So we are still on lockdown. And despite certain restrictions being lifted, the vaccine is still so far away that it’s still best to stay at home. What to do? Aside from getting coronavirus TV news updates, Netflix marathon-watching is probably what most of you are doing. Based on my many conversations with my Netflix-loving friends, I present the three most popular shows to binge on while we are forced to stay safe indoors by this nasty pandemic.
