The Inerasable
Japan 2015
Written by Ken’ichi Suzuki
Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura
Watched on 28.09.2016

“The Inerasable” was ok. I liked the combination of a classic “ghost” story with the more down-to-earth approach of a journalist, I, and Kobu, a young student, trying to make sense of it all, and the subsequent investigation. For a while, that was quite interesting. Also, the first couple of minutes were really great, and a very effective short little horror story in itself. The scares were well-placed, and there were a couple of really tense moments. And the scary elements were well done, very effective, and since there were quite a few of them, also rich in variety, with the shadow creatures (and yes, I know that they weren’t really shadow creatures, but I don’t want to give their origin away) a particular standout. Those are probably going to follow me around in my nightmares for a while. Thus, for the first half or so, I found “The Inerasable” to be quite entertaining.

Unfortunately, after a promising and effective start, the movie started to overdo it a little with I’s and Kobu’s forays into the past. There’s one revelation after another about bad things going on in said house. After a while, it starts to get tedious, and even slightly unintentionally hilarious in its “But wait, there’s more!”-approach. For me, the child murderer probably would have been a good point to stop. Or they also could have skipped a couple of “generations” of evil(doings). But as it is, it got tiresome. The finale once again was nice – even though you could question their decision to actually enter said seemingly cursed house, let alone at night, but at least it gave “The Inerasable” some creepy moments close to the end. And I liked the way the movie ultimately ended – albeit it’s quite typical for this kind of film. Overall, even though it was a tad too long and should have skipped a couple of redundant revelations in order cut to the chase sooner, it was a decent enough horror flick which I’d especially recommend for fans of J-horror.
5/10

IMDB