Kate

Slow paced storytelling that trusts the viewers are smart enough to connect the dots themselves. Noroi opens with seemingly random plot lines that do not quite fit together, but as the story progresses, you start to notice the connections and by the end of the movie, everything falls into a perfect picture. Not a scene nor a frame seemed redundant.

I appreciated how Noroi: The Curse believed in my memory skills and brain power, and did not spam me with countless flashbacks that are supposed to help me connect the scenes and lore elements. It’s up to a viewer to either see the patterns and hints in the background that are dropped throughout the movie. With that, it presents itself as a perfect rewatch material - as a viewer, it’s entertaining to try to find things you might have missed on the first watch.

If you expect a lot of jump scares and a fast paced scary story - you won’t find it here. It relies on building the creepy and disturbing atmosphere framed into a realistic documentary style. It takes a while before anything truly happens, and yet the plot itself is interesting enough, so you won’t get bored waiting.

Overall, one of the best documentary-like horror movies I have seen in quite a while. The filming, editing, acting - all comes together to make it seem like a real story that truly happened. It requires you to pay attention to understand the it completely, but it’s worth it.