Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

If you're unacquainted with Japanese horror films, and JU REI: THE UNCANNY is your first outing, you may actually enjoy it and find it worthwhile. If not, then, unfortunately, there is not much to recommend. JU REI: THE UNCANNY so faithfully covers all the bases of the genre that there is nothing that isn't predictable and stale.The film has all the slow moving, crawling, from out of nowhere ghoulish figures that have been presented much better in films like JU ON, and, of course, RINGU. So, any viewer whose seen those film, and especially viewers who are fans of the genre will, most likely be bored with JU REI.My impression is that JU REI is part of the Japanese V-Cinema industry. I don't know this for a fact; it's just my impression. This industry is the same one that gave Takashi Maaike such a following, amongst others. Of course, V-Cinema is a perfectly respectable industry in Japan. Put simply, films made for V-Cinema go direct to video and do not get released to theaters. Whereas, in the United States, direct to video might imply poor quality or a failure, in Japan it is a respected medium However, JU REI has more of the US style direct to video feel then the higher quality Japanese V-Cinema one. And, that, of course, is not a compliment. It feels like the filmmakers were trying to cash in on the popularity of RINGU and JU ON and came up with a rather formulaic, by the numbers horror flick. It also appears to me to be shot on digital video, also a hallmark of the low budget, quick buck American direct to video market. And while the film seems to have been competently shot and acted, it really has no sense of identity.JU REI clocks in at a mere 77 minutes and is organized in 10 chapters. The film opens with chapter 10 and works it's way back to the 1st chapter and then a prelude. In chapter 10 we see some Japanese schoolgirls dancing to a boom box in an alleyway late at night. Suffice it to say that things don't go so well from there. Bad for them and bad for us since it's the first indication that JU REI is on the low rent side of things. By this I mean, their demise is pretty silly and consists of arms reaching up from out of frame and grabbing them. The film then cuts to the next chapter. We learn, as the film works it's way to the prelude sequence, that there is a mysterious hooded figure that curses people by contact. These cursed individuals will then, ultimately, forward the curse to the next victim. So, connecting the chapters are the victims in the earlier chapters killing/cursing the victims in the subsequent later chapters. Sort of a perverse "pay it forward" set up.I don't have a problem with this scenario even given that is so typical of Japanese horror; it's the execution that brings it down. As I mentioned, the film is decently acted and competently shot, it's just not inventive in any way and lacks tension in most of the chapters. The ghoulish victims aren't very menacing and each chapter ends just as the victim is being cursed/killed.I will say, however, there were two shorts moments in JU REI that were quite compelling. One in which, a young schoolboy is waiting at school to be picked up by his mother. In the sequence, the boy thinks his mother is waiting for him at the top of a staircase, and goes towards the figure. Well, it wasn't mom. This small moment worked very well and actually, disturbed me a little. The second moment was a scene in which an elderly woman is confined to a bed in a nursing home. The poor woman is trapped and terrified as one of the mysterious figures slowly comes to get her. The moment was drawn out and worked quite well. Both scenes were similar in the sense that two relatively helpless characters, a child and an elderly woman, were menaced and, ultimately, consumed by this evil. It was rather unnerving. Unfortunately, these two moments only took about four minutes of screen time and were definitely the exception as far as genuine scares go.So, like a lot of American direct to video films, and unlike many of their Japanese counterparts, JU REI fails to deliver and only manages a few creepy moments. Asian horror fans might find some aspects of the film interesting, considering it is such a pastiche of more successful films, but viewers new to the genre would be better served starting off with RINGU or any number of other Japanese films in this genre.

I'm going to tell you right now this review will have spoilers, such as they are, from the outset. If you don't want to know then stop reading now.You've been warned.Told in "reverse order" Ju-Rei tells the tale of a series of ghostly murders in reverse. Its a linear version of the classic tale "Le Ronde" where we see the story by following a different character from scene to scene until we end up back at the start. That doesn't quite happen, but the premise is the same, we follow the story backwards through the ghosts, who are alive in the "next" story. Its a clever idea but one that doesn't really work since by the third "chapter" you've figured out whats going on and all suspense is lost. It might have worked if there had been some variation, but there is none until the final prologue where the story is told in a slightly different way. Before that however its the same basic story of a lone person at night investigating weird noises that ultimately lead them into the hands of the ghosts told multiple times.Actually the movie isn't that bad, its creepy for the first two or three stories as we wait for something to happen, but nothing does, or nothing different does. Its the total lack of variation that makes this hard to sit through. Worse, not only does the movie repeat itself, it repeats other, better, movies. The ghosts are almost the exact same sort of ghosts as in Ju-on(The Grudge) down to the black eyes and weird croaking sounds. How can one not see them and moan out load "Rip off!" In the end I can't recommend this to anyone wanting a really good, really scary movie. Sure the film starts off strong but by the third variation, about 15 minutes in, it all collapses down on itself. No one should be asked to pay money for a movie thats effectively over in one fifth of its running time. Of course if you ever run across this on cable or some other way where you don't have to pay for it, I'd try it if you want to see a somewhat interesting misfire, otherwise avoid it.

This movie is different in that it plays out backwards. We start at chapter ten and work our way to a prologue. As you watch it, you begin to see how all the people are interconnected. However, I wasn't really impressed with chapter one or the prologue. This movie seems to be racing towards some sort of dark secret, I could not wait to find out what it was, but in the end it never really revealed anything. I am still not sure what the urban myth was, it was a bit vague, and I never understood why the wife at the end did what she did. I am also unclear where the wife and her daughter were killed. Still though it was creepy enough to overcome this flaws. If you watch this movie, however, keep in mind it is very low budget. The effects are not going to awe you and the film is not very high quality. Still worthy of a look see if you like Japanese horror.

Just like a million ranch-house mommies think they can make food in their crock-pot that rivals that of real-life restaurants, Ju-Rie is an amateur, contrived thing that attempts to distill all the winning points of the films that obviously inspired it. Distill is a generous word, on second thought - this movie blatantly steals every device it uses from other successful J-Horror flicks, then proceeds to use those devices in shameful, uninspired ways. It's the movie equivalent of mugging someone and spending your stolen gains on cheap Mexican candy.Still, it's got a moment or two. They make use (I won't say EXCELLENT use) of the placement of creepy images in the periphery of a shot. so that you may or may not even notice them on any given viewing (a technique that's truly chilling used by skilled directors), which is nice at times. And really, if you want a non-scary breakdown of J-Horror formula points, this thing watches like an instruction manual.Three out of ten.