There
is a new name in long-haired, slit-mouthed yurei J-horror, but you don’t want
to know it, because those who do, eventually wind up dead. It is not a pleasant
death either. Basically, their eyes explode. There is a way to survive, but it
will not be easy, because it is always hard to escape the wrath of a malevolent
Japanese horror entity, especially the one we dare not name in Hirotaka Adachi’s
Stare, which had its world premiere at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.
Mizuki
expected to have a laidback lunch with her friend, instead she watched her die
from some kind of explosive eyeball aneurism. Soon thereafter, Haruo’s younger
brother dies in a similarly grotesque fashion. People just don’t die this way,
so Haruo and Mizuki quickly find each other and team-up to investigate. A bit
of nosing around leads them to Eiko, a mutual friend of the deceased.
Unfortunately, she barely lives long enough to explain how it all started when the
three co-workers heard a folk tale about a mystery grudge-holding woman, who
killed all those who knew her name.
Alas,
she will cry out that name to Mizuki and Haruo while in a state of supernatural
agitation. Of course, they pass it on to Mamiya, a journalist investigating the
suspicious deaths, who repeats it to his wife. Fortunately, there is a survivor—at
least for now—who can explain how he did it (maybe there is a hint there in the
title).
Stare
is
a fun film precisely because of its J-horror excesses. You will shout out loud
every time someone utters the unspeakable name, which happens frequently. Sure,
it is totally nuts, but the Macguffin, the big tricky gimmick, and the final
twist are all deviously clever. Adachi (a.k.a. horror writer Otsuichi) executes
the horror business with slickly sinister style. Scare is definitely scary,
even if when it doesn’t make much sense (it even acknowledges its biggest
logical hole, so you have to just go with it). As Mizuki and Haruo, Marie
Iitoyo and Yu Inaba also do their parts, making compellingly earnest and believably
scared witless protagonists.