I’m kind of on a roll with director Kenichi Ugana these days. He’s been a fun discovery to make since 2023’s Visitors: Complete Edition, and his latest, The Curse, now marks the fourth film I’m discussing on this platform.
Our story follows Riko (Yukino Kaizu), a hairstylist who finds herself subject to grueling terror when strange things begin happening around her. Upon finding out her Taiwanese friend Shufen (Tammy Lin) has long since been dead for months, Riko also discovers a slew of inappropriate messages from Shufen’s social media and text messages, along with a threatening video specifically targeting her roommate, Airi (Reiko Ozeki).
It’s not long before Riko herself is marked, soon realizing that these grim events are the machinations of a voodoo witch in Taiwan who is obsessed with destroying her and her friends because of their social media presence. As the story moves ahead, Riko journeys to Taiwan to convene with her ex-boyfriend, Jiahao (Yu) and her friend’s sister, Huijun (Mimi Shao), who may possibly be able to help save Riko from a dark fate they’ve all suddenly become attached to. In the ultimate race to beat the evil entity consuming them, will Riko and her friends prevail? Or, are their fates forever sealed?…
Ominous, apt, and chilling, Ugana’s The Curse is nothing short of a noteworthy recital on social media obsession, one told through a crosscultural lens, and superstitional context. It’s certainly darker and more brooding than the three other films I’d seen, particularly Visitors: Complete Edition. Ugana dives further into the supernatural this time, going full throttle with ghoulish apparitions, grim foreshadowing, macabre, and gracious servings of splattergore and vomitgore to boot.
The only thing that really baffled me is how Riko seemingly – still – managed to keep her shit together more than a halfhour in. But, that’s horror for you. Ugana’s script and direction makes fine work of building enough tension and intrigue to keep you watching, which says plenty of his storytelling acumen, even if at times some of the more irksome genre tropes test you; In one scene, a character falls on his butt in feat while backing up from a man who becomes possessed and I found myself yelling “GET THE F**K UP!,” because, well… that’s me.
Contributing to the spectacle is actress Ozeki who plays Riko’s roommate, Airi, as well as actor Yazukaze Motomiya who plays Riko’s father in a scene where he may or may not have actually come to visit his daughter. Actor and musician Yutaka Kyan who last left us with an amiable and charming performance in The Gesuidouz rejoins Ugana, opposite Kaizu as Riko’s employer at their hair salon. Actress star Ray Fan teems with all kinds of creepiness as the maniacal antagonist in the second half, leading to what can only be described as the film’s full-circular messaging on social media obsession.
What isn’t really clear to me is the apparition herself, who appears as a grotesque and ghastly woman in a red dress. Her image, and even her hair, are often seen in certain places only by the afflicted, often times before striking her targets. Her identity remains a mystery, whereas her purpose in The Curse, for better or worse, serves exponentially to the film’s aim, which is for our antagonist to terrorize Riko and her friends no matter what. Either way, this is Ugana at some of his continual movie-making best, horror or otherwise.
The Curse enjoyed its World Premiere at the twentieth edition of Fantastic Fest.