“Ju-on: Origins” Netflix Review by Brooke Daugherty
August 2, 2020 11:25 am |
JU-ON: Origins is a prequel to the JU-ON/Grudge series that takes on the premise “truth is more terrifying”, with this acting as the in-universe TRUE story behind the films. We find out decades worth of events that inspired the movies over the course of six episodes. The limited amount of episodes and the 26-31 minute run time are deceiving. The series is full of characters and important circumstances and feels much more than the 3 hours of screen time.
The story begins in 1988 and ends in 1994, years before the slew of films or even books appeared, placing it perfectly to be the origin story of the media we have all grown to love (and hate.) There are several characters, but the story is told mainly through actress Haruka Honjo, paranormal researcher Yasuo Odajima, and teenagers Kiyomi Kawai and Yudai Katsuragi plus the ominous house as seen in the films.
All six episodes were written by Hiroshi Takahashi (writer Ringu series) and Takashige Ichise (producer/writer on JU-ON and Grudge series) and their horror backgrounds are not lost in this series. Shô Miyake’s direction is fantastic. He uses space and lighting to up the tension.WARNING: This is a horror series and there are not only scenes of death and murder, but also real life horrors like physical and mental abuse. These more familiar, yet disturbing moments are highlighted by quiet moments giving the feeling of dread as you wait for something bad to happen.
If you love Japanese horror, watch this. It is done wonderfully. If you like slasher or jump scare horror, I would still suggest it, but it might not be up your alley. Although I loved this series, I need to rewatch it because there were things I didn’t connect until the end and I think the knowledge afterwards will up my rating from the High Taste It to a Tupperware.
PCL Rating: High Taste It
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH 🍅
Tags: Ju-On Origins Netflix 2020, Ju-On: Origins, pop culture leftovers, Television Review, The Grudge, tv
Categorised in: Television Reviews
This post was written by Leftover Brian
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