Saw Noroi, a Japanese horror film. I liked it. It's a found footage film, ala Blair Witch. The film follows a squashy, middle-aged paranormal investigator as he just sort of pokes around and talks to hobos and neighbors of weird people. It picks up soon after everything (of course) becomes connected and soon there are exorcisms and dead babies and all the best things. In several scenes digital corruption is used to great effect. Also like Blair Witch, this film is far more creepy than scary; more David Lynch than John Carpenter and therefore I liked it all the better.
This means that it relies on the viewer to do most of the work of actually scaring themselves however. Much is suggested and tension slowly mounts but I sort of knew nothing much would come of it. Horror aficionados be warned: there's no jumps and barely any gore at all. The tension and a sense of unease mounts however and I enjoy a queasy sense of dread much more than a sudden shock, so good. The film starts very slowly, with clips from cheaply produced TV-specials on paranormal abilities. The film uses the tacky feel of reality TV to great effect, making the genuinely paranormal look cheap and fake. Then things mount steadily until a post-credits sequence which is dynamite.
I liked many parts of the film. It's not the most original or visceral horror film (frankly, I found Weekend harder to watch,) but the lame-to-awesome ascent makes it very winning and the awesome bits are pretty sweet. A good horror for non-horror fans.
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