Reason number three hundred to dislike social media- someone can use your posts and fun videos about tasting the wonderful food at that new Thai noodle place to put an ancient curse on you. That’s the ominous set-up posited by Ken’ichi Ugana’s The Curse, a film that starts out with a slow-boil attitude before turning quite hectic (and gory) as things wind down, showing no mercy to those with a phone screen addiction.
Honestly, I check out of a film quicker than anything else whenever the filmmaker chooses to parse information through text messages and phone images…. Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper (2016) excluded. And that’s how a good majority of The Curse plays after reserved Riko (Yukino Kaizu) finds out an influencer friend was found dead under suspicious circumstances, and her posts have become strikingly insidious with a dark figure lurking in the background.
Soon after, Riko’s roomate (Yutaka Kyan) is sent a video with her own image being defiled in some sort of pagan ceremony, and the bloodletting begins. Spiraling out of control herself and with a creeping sense of dread that adeptly permeates the film, Riko enlists her old boyfriend to help in breaking the curse that’s haunting her existence.
Director Ugana, whose wild Visitors (2023) is the only other film of his I’ve seen, seems like the type of purveyor of video nasties that dotted the film landscape years ago. He alternates between carefully composed static shots with uncomfortably long visions of violence. But the narrative itself is not as sure as the technique. There’s not too much depth with The Curse, it trades in all the typical J-horror movie tropes and seems to be much more interested in sinewy spills and anarchic violence than anything else. With The Curse, he’s checked all the boxes. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but a good midnight exploration.
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Peppered into the slate of premiers, secret screenings, and world explorations of this year’s Fantastic Fest, there are a handful of repertory choices as well. There’s S. Torriano Berry’s Embalmer (1996), a mid 1990’s effort that calls itself a horror film designed for African American audiences. There’s the Alex Winter-starring film Freaked (1994), and the anime classic Angel’s Egg (1985) amongst others breathing new life into the neglected or ignored.
I chose a never-before heard of 1984 French film called Folies Meurtrieres (aka Killing Spree). At a brisk 49 minutes, filmmaker Antoine Pellissier’s underground feature takes the slasher genre and widdles it down to its most base element- that being prey running from their attacker. Broken into five short fragments, each one is mostly dialogue free as a woman tries to escape from a hooded motorcycle-riding maniac. Aided by a garbled soundtrack that drones relentlessly and cinematography that values the back of legs as a perfect framing device for encroaching bodies, Folies Meurtrieres plays like a found student film whose production values are just above DIY. This ramshackled aesthetic works, however, and the film settles into a mindless chase experiment capped off by gruesome kills.
Beyond that, I wouldn’t recommend trying to decode the narrative, whose illogical chase sequences (at once the killer is behind and ahead of their prey…. why does one girl pull her car into a quarry???) seem far less designed for common sense than to express a nihilistic thrill. And certainly don’t put too much thought into the various jump scares that occur in each episode involving a half decomposing man startling the young women running for their lives. Although Pellissier does explain the violent impetus for all these killings in the final few minutes, Folies Meurtrieres works best as an impressionistic examination of the heartbeat-pounding sequences that often give slasher films the most juice.
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It’s almost half an hour before the aforementioned gun appears in Bruno Martin’s Luger, but by that point, we’re well aware that nothing will be simple for Rafa (David Sainz) and Toni (Mario Mayo), two contract specialists who immerse themselves in the dirty work most people avoid. One of these jobs is to reclaim a stolen vehicle…. an assignment from their shady lawyer contact Angela (Ana Turpin) that has far greater consequences when the weapon favored by the German Army in World War II arrives and sets off a wild night of bone crunching fighting and duplicitous interactions.
Taking place in an industrial wasteland, with people just as ferocious and desperate as their liminal surroundings, I appreciated how unpredictable Luger plays out. And through all the macho bluster, the film winds its way to a somewhat tender finale that exemplifies even the most hardcore people doing the bloodiest jobs have simple emotions as well.
Fantastic Fest continues through September 25th. For tickets and information, visit http://www.fantasticfest.com
Dallas Film Now. 