Noroi: The Curse (2005) - one of the best entries into Found Footage horror


Title: Noroi: The Curse

Year: 2005

Director: Koji Shiraishi

IMDb score: 6.8/10

Personal score: 9/10

Summary: A prominent paranormal journalist Kobayashi goes missing shortly after completing a documentary. What begins as an investigation into strange noises soon evolves into the chilling mystery of a demonic entity named Kagutaba.

One-sentence review: Unsettling, atmospheric and teeming with lore, it's an absolute treat for anyone who loves the found footage genre. 


Watch if: 

  • You love found footage and/or folk horror
  • You enjoy an unsettling mystery
  • You want to feel thoroughly unnerved
  • You don't want to see any gore


Don't watch if: 

  • You don't enjoy reading subtitles? 
  • You want something simple and action-packed


Review: The beauty of found footage horror is that it ages well. What I mean by that is that even if the quality of the movie is outdated, it simply gives another layer of authenticity to it, which, in turn, can make it seem even more unnerving and realistic than in the beginning. Even though Noroi came out 20 years ago (by the time of writing this review), it is still as solid a horror movie as it was in the beginning. I admit I might be biased here, because I love both folk horror as well as Japanese horror movies (childhood nostalgia, I guess), but Noroi is a must-watch for anyone who enjoys found footage horror. 

I'm all for atmospheric movies and Noroi has that tense, unsettling atmosphere pinned down perfectly. From start to finish, you are sucked into the central mystery, biting your nails as layer after layer gets peeled back, revealing an unimaginable horror underneath. The video footage is grainy, dated, low quality and at times you can almost forget that you're not watching a documentary. The acting is solid, the story tense and the found footage aspect makes you feel like you're in there, following the path of the documentary crew, getting ever deeper into something you don't quite understand - something dark and dangerous. 

Noroi keeps the tension up for the whole movie. I don't think there was ever a moment I was bored or distracted by something going on in my surroundings. I was sucked in and at the edge of my seat, trying to figure out what was really going on. The scares are solid and so is the horror bubbling underneath. There were a few moments where I felt my stomach drop at a scare or a new revelation and at the end of the movie, when I realized I was alone in a dark room, I started to think that maybe watching the movie by myself was not the best decision. 

Overall, if you want to feel scared, you will be - provided you enjoy atmospheric movies with growing tension. If you want something intense, packed with jump-scares or something gory, then you won't find it here. Noroi increases the tension gradually, letting the horror seep into your bones and grow over time, creeping into your soul where it stays for a while. I don't think there's a specific scene in the movie that I can point to and say "this is the one that really scared me - this is the scariest scene in the movie". It was more the combination of everything - the acting, the set-up, the mystery, the building tension - that made the whole experience scary enough that I remember the feeling even 20 years after seeing the movie. Honestly, if you haven't seen it yet, you really should. It's nothing gory, nothing too intense and just scary enough to unsettle horror-veterans, but also manageable to someone just starting out. It's a classic. Go watch it!


Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixVC1LYEMbM

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