The dead are accumulating at an alarming rate and the state in which the victims are discovered is even more so — all died of a heart attack provoked by extreme fear, and their eyes have literally exploded. Two students who have lost loved ones in this circumstance seek to understand the cause, and their investigation leads them to the troubling urban legend story of a deadly shamaness ghost, Shirai.

Spotlighting foreign films, Fantasia Film Festival screened Japanese filmmaker Hirotaka Adachi’s Stare (2019). An eye-popping thriller set in Japan, this movie wastes no time getting started with the gore, and within the first five minutes, you will know that you are in for some messy spurts of blood. If you’re into Japanese horror this is one flick you’ll want to… stare at!

The movie begins with Mizuki (Marie Iitoyo) having lunch with her girlfriend. During their conversation, a petrified look comes over her friend’s face and she begins to back away, saying “She’s here”. Next thing we know she is on the floor, along with her popped out eyeballs – quite a bloody and mood-setting cold opening. As we get into the nitty-gritty of the film, we meet a host of characters who suffer the same fate, one of them being a young man named Kazuto whose older brother Haruo (Yu Inaba) is deeply affected by his younger brother’s sudden death. He begins to research his death, maintaining that it couldn’t possibly be the cardiac arrest that was the prognosis from his doctors. During his investigation, he meets Mizuki, who he has learned is suffering the pain of losing her friend under the same circumstances. Together, they retrace the steps of their friend and brother to find that their lost loved ones were caught in the grasp of a deadly urban legend, one that affects anyone who hears the story and name of the ghost “Shirai” — a woman with abnormally large eyes who is said to kill anyone who hears her name.  Of course, one victim accidentally tells them the name and story of Shirai-san, and the pair finds themselves not only investigating the legend but also forced to try and solve how to survive her wrath once her name is invoked.

First I must say that overall Stare is not a terrible film, in retrospect, however, while watching it I found myself frustrated with the structure and pacing of the film. The reveals of the gory shots are meant to be shocking and horrifying, but to this American, personally, I have seen a lot worse both on and off of film. The effect was lost on me and did not successfully add to the danger the characters keep speaking of. For most of the movie I felt let down repeatedly by setups for some creepy and gory shots, only for the scenes to end up being anticlimactic – the movie didn’t pick up until the latter half which still was not as scary as something like The Blair Witch Project (1999) or A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which are my standards for urban legend movies. Why build suspense by making great panning shots and then letting it fizzle out but cutting to something else? I kept begging this movie to scare me! All the pointing and whispering with a scared look in their eyes was not doing it for me, and the same scene over and over and over and over with different victims got old very fast.

I will commend the special effects on the eyes popping though, the first time this happens to a character we are treated to some eye guts and blood plopping on the floor, and they do escalate in the goriness in the second half. I feel that the film eventually finds its footing when we finally get to see Shirai herself, bearing a bit of a resemblance to Momo with a “Joker smile” finished off with the signature hair-over-the-face-look that Japanese films style their ghosties with. I did like her look and how the actress chose to move, but she was not menacing and so I couldn’t get into any feelings of danger for the protagonists. Other than the styling of the characters, I also liked the framing, interesting how at times it was shot in such close-up framing as if the characters were being interviewed while giving their lines, creating an intimate feeling as if I was part of the investigation team, but again, since I was neither scared and since the film wrote in a way out for the victims, I was not too impressed with the story or horror/gory effects.

If you like Japanese horror films along the lines of 1998’s Ringu (The Ring) or 2002’s Ju-On (The Grudge) you may find some selling points within this film. It is hard not to compare Stare to them, with the same “stalking and inescapable ghost” structure and how sharing of urban legends, either through word of mouth or videotape, sets the curse in motion. Had it been based on a true urban legend or ghost story, like The Grudge, there might have been an added layer of fear while watching this, however, through some research, Stare is not of a true urban legend and seems to be out of the mind of screenwriter Fuyumi Mamiya. Hirotaka Adachi’s Stare may be one to add to your to-watchlist, but for me, I took nothing with me from  Stare except a strong urge to revisit these other influential Japanese horror films that preceded it.