Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Taraparain
Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
bondblackberry
The story revolves around the setting of a Japanese movie during World War Two. Yet, the scenes of that movie when screened is interrupted by some scenes from a old discarded television movie. This initiates the mystery and the film gets the fuel for the making of a perfect scary movie. I watched a lot of Japanese horror films, but this is definitely one of the scariest. I liked the ending, yet I feel they should have explained a bit further to keep the viewers pondering over why there is a mystery of a haunted setting in the first place. What caused those killings? Why it happens in that place? From when the place was haunted and something like that. It could have made the viewers to ruminate and compare whether such things happens in reality. This would have kept some apprehensive people on their toes especially those, if they are in the acting business :) Please watch this movie and you can get this movie in Youtube.
christopher-underwood
Second feature film from the man who would go on to make The Ring and Dark Water, indeed his very first film if you exclude, as I see IMDb do, a 'pink'. but first or second it is a great effort and if it doesn't totally succeed it certainly has some very creepy moments and is breaking new ground for a ghost film. He is already using the media, ghostly images appear superimposed upon the film he is using to shoot a melodrama, and utilising the long haired maniacal girl/ghost image. Modest running time exactly in accordance with the requirements of the story; if only all directors would go short if the story did not warrant more. A little confusing now and again because Mr Nakata does not lay everything out that obviously but well worth catching.
stikeforce3
this movie is practically impossible to describe. the alternate title "Don't Look Up" is a lot more descriptive. Like most Japanese cinema, the story is not as linear as American. The story revolves around a director who is filming a story about a ww2 deserter. The set is haunted(?) by an actress who died(?) during the filming of a tv show back in the 60s. the director is the ONLY one who saw this show. if you have seen Ringu (the director Hideo Nakata is the same) and liked it, you'll like ghost actress. i loved ghost actress a lot more than ringu. a truly scary and disturbing movie. a 10!
etale
After watching this film last night on Sundance, I realized that much of Nakata's style was first done in this film. Here we have many of the same elements of the RINGU series, especially the idea of the media being the source of the supernatural. Instead of the cursed videotape, we instead having a haunted studio and strange images appearing on film. In fact, the strange images appearing on film brings immediately the cursed videotape in RINGU to mind. The only thing missing was the obsession to water that runs through Nakata's later films. The final scenes are quite chilling, with a bit of a nod to Murnau, what with the door opening by itself ands the ghost entering the room, reminds me immediatly ofNOSFERATU. A chilling movie that will make think twice about going up to a catwalk.
