Horror master Hideo Nakata manages to squeeze in a roller coaster ride of ghostly adventures in 'Stigmatized Properties'.
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Just by looking at the title, ‘Stigmatized Properties’, it gives us an inkling on how this movie will go. For the uninitiated, this is a Japanese horror film that delves into our deepest fears - haunted houses and gory ghosts climbing out of television sets.
As a fan of the horror and thriller genres, I went into the cinema with high expectations, hoping to get spooked and maybe leaving the theatre hall a little frightened than I entered.
The film is based on the real-life experiences of Tanishi Matsubara, an artist who had gone through bizarre and terrible phenomena through living in ‘stigmatized properties’. The audience is introduced to a comedy duo - Nakai (Koji Seto) and Yamame (Kazuya Kamenashi) who aren’t exactly good at what they do on stage. They decided to call it quits but not till a final venture - to move into a stigmatised property and film the spooky encounters that ensues. They move on to various haunted houses to find out the truth of the tragedies that happened in those houses and apartments.
While it gives us a glimpse into the crazy antics of the entertainment business and the sacrifices one makes to ‘make it’, “Stigmatized Properties” falls a little short on the delivery.
Horror master Hideo Nakata manages to squeeze in a roller coaster ride of ghostly adventures, but didn’t exactly milk out the suspense. Most of the jump scares were rather predictable for a horror buff, and therefore, missed out on the shock factor that I hoped for.
Stigmatized Properties is a film for the entry-level horror buffs, looking for a good time at the cinemas.
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