The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

... but definitely watchable, this Japanese thriller tells the tale of young witch Misa, who goes to a girl's school to investigate creepy happenings and discovers that some of the students are dabbling in dark magic. Done in the style of an Italian giallo (yellow) thriller of the 70s, there are lots of shadowy frights and shots of nature disturbed by the doings of man - wind whipping through trees, that sort of thing. Since the movie was aimed at the teenage date market, the frights and gore are strictly PG-13, but the creepy atmosphere is well executed and draws the viewer into Misa's investigation. The pace is slow for most of the film's length, but the climax is flashy, frenetic and worth the wait. A big hit in Japan in its day and followed by an 'origin' prequel, Birth of a Wizard, that detailed Misa's first adventure.

A young student and aspiring wizard comes to a new school where she makes friends with some difficulty. Before long, however, she finds herself having to protect her new friends and herself against the powerful forces of darkness that are conspiring against them. This synopsis may sound like a "Harry Potter" movie, but this movie has something that over-hyped mega-budgeted Hollywood franchise sorely lacks--hot girl-on-girl action! Actually, this movie has plenty of exploitative elements, but they veer more toward the violent than the sexy--i.e. a topless satanic crucifixion, a toilet stall drowning (don't ask), a pretty realistic decapitation. Fortunately for gore-minded viewers, Misa, the lead character, proves singularly incompetent in protecting her friends from the forces of evil. The females are generally on the receiving end of most of the extreme violence, but they are also the strongest characters with most of the males reduced to cowering peripheral figures. The movie is also a happy medium between the more child-oriented "Haunted School" type Japanese horror films (which adults may find pretty boring) and the more sexploitative fare like "Kekko Kammen" (which tend to substitute believable adolescent characters with talentless strippers and porn starlets spilling out of schoolgirl outfits). This has fairly credible and likable characters despite the strong exploitation elements. It compares pretty favorably to films like "Battle Royale".It is set in one of those strange Japanese schools where the one male teacher brazenly feels up his female students and the lesbian principal does a whole lot more than that. (Movies like this don't exactly instill one with confidence about the Japanese educational system). I'm not going to claim that this movie is objectively of the same caliber as a "Harry Potter" movie, but I sure enjoyed it more.

Version: Japanese, with English subtitles (by SBS)With my knowledge of Japanese horror movies limited to the 'Ringu' and Takashi Miike's 'Audition', I caught this on SBS one night. I really liked 'Audition', but I found the Ring movies to be rather boring, so I watched this few expectations. When it was over, I was pretty impressed.Misa Kuroi (Kimika Yoshino) is a witch, her secret means she gets transferred from school to school. Rumours constantly follow her - they say that people in her presence are prone to dying. Naturally, dark forces at work at her new school, and one night, Misa and twelve other students (that makes 13, get it?) are locked in the school. They will all die unless Misa can protect them.Story wise, it isn't very original, but its still rather interesting. Horror wise, it is pretty good. Dealing with the occult and supernatural, 'Wizard of Darkness' is stylish and gory. Nice special effects, and what surprised me was the fact that there were good actors in what is essentially gory teen-horror.It gets a bit Japanese at times, and if you've seen a few Japanese horror or action movies, you'll know what I'm talking about, e.g. unusual situations involving lesbians. If you don't like these movies, then maybe its best to avoid 'Wizard of Darkness, as it features unusual situations involving lesbians, among other things.8/10 - Check it out if you like Japanese horror, or horror in general.

This was on the other night on SBS really late (for those not in Australia this is the foreign channel). Being a big fan of Japanese horror films I waited up to watch it. Its really not bad! The film opens with a particularly gruesome death scene - which got my attention straight away - and it is suggested it was caused by these people using voodoo dolls. We are then introduced to a high school and a new girl at the school. Lots of strange things happen at this school, perverted teachers, mysterious deaths, suicides and the like. It seems that the new girl is in fact a witch and is investigating all the evil occurrences until one night when 13 students are locked in the school and they have to escape or die trying from those trying to summon the devil. Nothing is really explained, some character depth , but very little. Being Japanese Horror there is of course a fair level of unnecessary sexual scenes (girl on girl). Being female I found this quite amusing, but if you don't approve of completely unnecessary sex scenes I'd give it a miss. So all in all good horror, no plot connecting, sex and violence - ingredients of a good B grade horror and all the better because it is Japanese B grade horror, which is always much classier than our B Grade horror! 4/10 Don't rush out and buy it but if you come across it it is worth a peek.