Netflix Japan’s Ju-On is a spine chilling creepy hit, a true psychological thriller that, while it may not have moments that will have you jumping out of your chair in fear, it will certainly make you keep checking behind the chair.
Ju-On is a Japanese horror thriller franchise that was first brought to western audiences through the American remake the Grudge, released in 2004. Ju-On the Japanese version, started as a straight to Video film series, become so popular that the latter films were given cinema releases, in total the franchise spawned 9 movies, including reboots and a crossover film with the Japanese version of The Ring. Netflix’s new origins series has 6 episodes which are roughly 20mins long, so it’s easy to binge the entire series in one go.
I do not wish to spoil the series, by giving too much of the plot away. The series offers more stories of the Cursed house from the franchise and is based over several different time periods. As such the series follows many different characters which at times can be hard to follow, but towards the end of series it starts to bring all of the characters together before the climax.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the series, although it can be a little confusing at times, I believe that this is done on purpose to add more mystery to the series. I am not overly familiar with the franchise having only seen the first American film, but I feel this did not make a difference and that the plot was easy to follow. I thought the actors were great, making all the characters easy to relate to and/or have sympathy for, the choice of having the series focus on several time lines and characters was for me, a great direction adding to the overall mystery of the series.
The series ending was left open for a follow up season which I eagerly await, if you were a fan of Haunting of Hill House, I would highly recommend this series.
I did not watch the series in English dub as I felt this was poorly done, and quickly choose to watch in Japanese with English subtitles and I will advise people to do this as English dub could take you out of the program.
4 Stars
Andrew More
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