Kairo (2001) (Japan)

aka Pulse/The Circuit

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In my expansive history with the genre, there’s only been a handful of films that changed things. Three which I can recall right off the bat but I’m sure with a couple more hours to contemplate, I could dredge up a few more. Those three films have burned an imprint on my brain and they came into my life in this order. TCM had me not realizing I had been holding my breath for a duration of time. Finally catching it in the dark after a sliding steel door slammed shut. Session 9 had me turning on all the lights in an empty house to little effect at calming the disquiet. And finally, the film in question. The last of the trio I watched but the first one I’m revisiting to write about. Kairo shook me. Kairo changed things. Kairo made me realize that if there was something wallowing in the shadows, I probably didn’t want to meet it and I damn sure didn’t want it to know I was there. Kairo had me looking over my shoulder for weeks during the long walk home after work. Kairo is the scariest thing I had ever seen and probably will ever see. Which can be a horrific burden because everything that came after just doesn’t hit as well as it’s capable of. Do I think Lake Mungo is a truly horrifying masterpiece? I do but it came after Kairo, so it’s not as effective as it should be. The suicide of a friend and a terrifying web page which poses a simple and horrifying question sets off a series of increasingly disturbing events for a group of Japanese youths. Peeling back disturbing layer after disturbing layer of an unthinkable plot where the spirits of the dead are invading the world of the living using technology. The drowning atmosphere of dread mingles with a gorgeously disgusting visual palette that successfully shows off an image of Japan already succumbing to a drab rot. Isolated no matter how many friends or strangers surround you, an incredibly hopeless vibe is realized through a master craftsman manipulating every aspect of film. You can almost feel the cold slipping under your skin. Add to that some of the most striking macabre images ever presented in a film and a true sense of the uncanny when it comes to the supernatural threat, and this is one J-Horror presentation that refuses to leave. I consider it the best to come out of the cycle of films. Never has the apocalypse felt so personal. Kiyoshi Kurosawa lands another powerful entry is his impressive catalogue of horrors. “Do you want to meet a ghost?”