Movie Review: Cursed ('Chô' kowai hanashi A: yami no karasu) - 2004

The horrors of failed customer satisfaction

As everyone knows, nothing hurts your business like ghosts with a number fetish killing all your customers. This happening in Japan, the land in which customer satisfaction is the highest priority, must be the biggest horror of all!

The setting of "Cursed" is a convenience store owned by a crazy couple. Not crazy in a funny way but in a "see them, turn around, and run away screaming" way. The employees of the store don't seem too bothered by that, though, nor are they puzzled by the fact that the few customers who come in never return for a second buy. The customer shortage may have something to do with the interior of the store requiring a new paint job, as the employees suggest. That, or with the fact that the store is infested with ghosts who happen to chase and kill the customers Ju-on style.

"Cursed" is a low budget video production, and it shows. But although director Yoshihiro Hoshino was confronted with the impossible mission of wrapping a rather silly story with barely existent production value, he succeeded in making a movie that is watchable and entertaining. The acting isn't bad, and the movie shines in the ghost scenes. These are well made and quite scary.

Rating: 6 out of 10 reasons to prefer mail order.