Part of Critical-Film's 2009 September Screams

The Asian horror boom is more than partly responsible for the resurgence of horror as a prevalent genre in mainstream cinema these days, as a number of the more (and less) popular  horror films of recent years are direct remakes of film produced in Asia in previous years. “The Grudge”, “The Ring”, “Shutter”, “One Missed Call”, “Pulse”, and so on, and so forth. The list goes on and on, and as these remakes are generally quite popular in North American, we keep seeing more and more remakes produced, and realistically, most of them are bad. Really bad. Yet they keep on coming, because they make money... and that is what's important, isn't it?

Pandering to the lowest common denominator isn't strictly an American thing, however, as the success of these films (the originals, not the remakes) in the Asian markets is resulting in a number of remakes, generic sequels, and derivative knock-offs overseas as well. As an example, there are four Ju-On (The Grudge) films that have been produced in Japan compared to the three American productions. Ringu (The Ring) has three films in Japan, one Korean remake, and of course the American remake and it's sequel. So, it's obvious we are not the only country who values the almighty dollar over any sort of quality. Why strive for originality when you have a tried and true formula that people have proven they will pay their money into?

Shibuya Kaidan is one of those films that just screams of derivativeness. A locker in the Shibuya district of Tokyo causes death to anyone who uses it. You wanted more? Well there isn't any more. that's it. Well, specifically... there's a group of six kids that use the locker, then they die at the hands of a mean-spirited ghost of a little girl. There's no plot to speak of as characters get killed mysteriously, then their friends seem kind of upset, but not really that much, then another one dies, then the remaining friends seem kind of upset. It goes on like this until they're all dead. It takes only 72 minutes for that to happen, yet the film still seems too long.

There's no mystery behind the killings, as the characters don't really even try to figure out what the hell is going on. They just let events unfold. That is, until there are only two characters left, and one has the inevitable “Eureka” moment, where she realizes exactly what is happening. If only every time your life was threatened by mysterious forces, the answer came to you that quickly. Once she discovers the story behind the murders of her friends, she ultimately comes up with a plan to defeat this ghost, who looks like all the other ghosts in Asian horror films, and put an end to this string of murders. I must also point out that of all the 'ways to kill horror movie monsters', this is by far the most lame.

Shibuya Kaidan lacks any sort of atmospheric direction, and seems almost like a DTV production, it looks and feels cheap, and certainly doesn't maintain the same amount of suspense or style as many of Japan's other outputs. It's hardly even worth mentioning among other similar films from overseas. Shibuya Kaidan is as unoriginal and uninspired as films can get, and is the perfect overseas mirror to some of the more recent, uninspired horror films being produced here in North America.