Social Media Gets Even More Dangerous in Underwhelming Japanese haunter The Curse (FANTASTIC)
Title: The Curse
First Non-Festival Release: TBD
Director: Kenichi Ugana
Writer: Kenichi Ugana
Runtime: 94 Minutes
Starring: Yukino Kaizu, Tammy Lin, Yu, Reika Oozeki
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
This film’s review was written after its screening at the Fantastic Film Festival in 2025.
It’s impossible to perfectly convey your thoughts in any single post online. The pressure to be perfect can be paralyzing but there’s an equal pressure to observing the perfection of other’s curated lives. And there’s some people that become blind to their own thoughtless comparisons to others enough to where it becomes harmful to themselves and others.
Riko (Yukino Kaizu) finds herself in a peculiar situation when her friend Shufen (Tammy Lin) begins making troubling posts on Instagram and other social media websites. When she tries to intervene, she and her roommate Airi (Reika Oozeki) begin receiving terrifying DMs. Upon reconnecting with her ex-boyfriend (Yu), Riko learns that Shufen dealt with something similarly before she tragically passed. Armed with the knowledge that apathy means death, Riko enlists the help of her friends to track down the source of the terrifying curses hurled at her from beyond the screen.
An uninspired story brings down interesting social media commentary and solid scares in new J-horror The Curse.
A fantastic cold open and eerie introduction to the mystery behind the curse plaguing Riko allows for some great moments to play out onscreen. Deliciously violent without showing too much, The Curse allows its prologue to serve as a glimpse of the horror and humor to come. It’s a shame that The Curse cannot live up to this idea because when it works, it works. The more the mystery unfurls, however, The Curse finds itself backed into a corner. With a clear origin to the curse identified, the story never progresses beyond its central idea of an amorphous social media curse.
By far some of the stupidest characters in horror history occupy The Curse making one dumb decision after another in service to the film’s uneven plot. Riko, and most of her posse, lack the agency needed to survive. Fuzzy curse logic and lingering shots show how curiously non-reactive these social media-addled young people can be. Paralyzed by the unnatural brutality, the lack of response from the characters is used more to further the commentary on internet social norms rather than to develop the characters themselves.
While it might make for an irritating watch, it does blend in nicely with the commentary on the social media brigading its titular curse emulates. Social media has truly taken a vicious turn in the last decade, and The Curse mimics the insanity quite well. Much like the perpetual wave of vitriol Riko and co endure, users on the websites we frequent are painted as the deranged, cruel, and ego-driven maniacs that exist in real-life. From the string of literal curses thrown at the crew from internet trolls to the pervasive threat an idea can pose to someone existentially, the commentary becomes rather compelling at times.
A few gnarly kills and tense moments make up for the overall silliness of the story. It’s clear that Director Ken’ichi Ugana knows how to craft a good scare. The Curse is dripping with a dark and biting comedy that is awash in its own violence. Leaning into the more playful tone, The Curse isn’t afraid to get bloody, using its ultraviolence to further its point on society’s desensitization to violence. This schtick wears pretty thin in its out-of-place third act, as it erases the goodwill it spends building. Still, a few choice moments with a knife make up for the tonal whiplash of The Curse.
Another fine entry in the J-horror cannon of curses, The Curse will live and die by its finale for most. Ugana carves up just enough to satisfy gorehounds even if more casual horror fans might balk at the familiarity, and weariness, of its tale. Otherwise, static characters, odd pacing, and baffling plot points curse The Curse well before its first incantation is heard. Technically proficient but lacking, The Curse is an altogether fine production that is undone by its own mechanics.
Overall Score? 5/10
