Going into “Tormented”, I wasn’t excited about this film. Maybe, it was the fact that I hated Takashi Shimizu’s last film “The Shock Labyrinth”. Still, I decided to check this film, just out of curiosity.
The film follows Daigo, a kid who doesn’t speak ever since he killed a rabbit on a playground. He also gets bullied at school. His sister Kiriko becomes worried that she’s losing touch with him and their father doesn’t care about them, as he has problems of his own. One day Kiriko takes Daigo to see a 3D horror film with a rabbit floating out of the screen. Once that happens, Daigo goes missing mysteriously. Now Kiriko must find him in a world of nightmares. But what she finds is more shocking then the truth.
At the end of “Tormented”, I was really surprised that I enjoyed this than I was going to. Even with its flaws and its ending, the film still managed to keep me interest throughout.
Most of that has to go to the direction of Takashi Shimizu, who manages to direct instead of trying to be over the top with the way that he directs. One of the reasons was, he carefully doesn’t rush the pace of the film. Shimizu does a good job making sure his scenes have rhythm that is accustomed to the tone of the film. It made the scenes work very well from a directorial standpoint, as they felt creepy enough and build tension onscreen. The other thing he manages to do well was the way that he directed the performances. I thought, this was a much better acted film than “Shock Labyrinth”. Shimizu takes his time to make his cast make their characters interesting and fit the tone of the film. The performances didn’t feel one dimensional and it also made the story interesting as none of the acting felt boring.
The screenplay was good for the most part, except the ending which I’ll talk about later. Shimizu along with screenwriters Sotaro Hayashi and Daisuke Hosaka did a good job with the way they came up with the screenplay. I liked, the way that they made the story very creepy though the visual aspects of the screenplay. It gave the film a level of creepiness which was needed to make the story work. If you take away that, then you’re stuck with a boring film. The other thing that makes this good was the fact that the flashback sequences helped develop the main character and maintained the film’s tone without hurting the film’s rhythm. The flashback sequences added to the film, as there was a purpose to them and takes the film into a different direction that isn’t confusing.
The only complaint that I have with the film was the ending. The last ten minutes were predictable, as I had an idea what was going to happen. I don’t like when a writer or writers do that. It just puts 2 and 2 together so easily at the end of the film that it takes away from the film. Surprisingly that was the only complaint with this film, as I thought that I would have many more going in.
This was a very solid effort from Takashi Shimizu, as this was a much better film than his last dreadful outing. With good direction and performances, “Tormented” is worth checking for fans of Japanese horror.
Review Rating: Three and a Half Stars
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