Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: An anthology tale of five stories related to the ghost photo phenomenon.
Review: With a ridiculous name for a movie like that, I'm sure there has to be an alternate title out there somewhere or was this a direct translation? They didn't even spell the title right on the cover for god's sake! I can't find a lot of information on this film or even on the actors involved which pretty much sucks. But it's on Amazon, which is how I watched it, so you'd think there would be more to draw on than this! Anyway, this is an anthology film, and the theme is ghost photos with each story's plot being driven by the introduction of these photos. This movie probably would have benefitted from some form of a wraparound even if it were something as simple as a cold hand turning pages of a photo album in between segments. I mean, if you're going to have a major theme like this, it helps to have something driving the setups for each entry. Okay, on with the show!
Segment 1 Pictures With No Object: Three kids go mountain climbing when they stumble upon a guy who seemingly committed suicide but is clutching a photo that has "help me" written on it. This one was probably the best of the five because it offers just what you would want and expect from a horror short. There is decent intrigue from the beginning as well as a general sense of wonder to what is actually going on since the audience just jumps into the action. The ghost photo in this one looked particularly eerie even if I couldn't even tell what I was looking at--at first. This story was aiming for genuine scares, that I think it pulled off successfully, and even offered up an original idea I hadn't seen before. There is a part where two girls are sitting in a car with the hazard lights on which left the opportunity for a ghost to suddenly appear in between a flash of light and darkness. This built the tension nicely, unfortunately, they kind of wasted this scare with some CGI effect, but it was creative nonetheless; it would be awesome to see the scene executed properly. Overall, it was short, sweet, and, with some interesting scares and effective atmosphere, it left me wanting more! Definitely a good way to start an anthology tale off.
Segment 2 Watching You: A schoolgirl discovers that a photo of her choir instead shows everyone is disturbingly staring at her. The premise for this one wasn't too bad although I still felt something more should have went into the photo. My idea of a ghost photo only makes sense if there were an actual ghost in the damn photo or if everyone in the photo but the main girl died right afterward (which they don't); if anything, it would be classified merely as supernatural more than ghostly. I think this segment tried to tackle too much as it throws in some guy trying to explain the situation and how people who took the photo are dead while he is supposedly a ghost himself? I don't know. There was a cool part where someone was trying to get in the girl's window from like 25 ft. in the air. But in the end, it just didn't make sense and leaves you more annoyed than frightened.
Segment 3 Memorable Polaroid: A group of friends are having a Christmas party when they hear on the news that their last friend expected to arrive was murdered not far from them. They soon realize perhaps one of them may be the killer after the murdered girl shows up in a polaroid photo of the group. This was another one that had a lot of potential that was not entirely realized. I loved the use of the polaroid, and the reason that was given to use said camera, by the main girl, Yui, played by the cute Narumi Konno. I think I have yet another little crush! She has all my favorite traits: nice, funny, clever, petite, and a raven-haired beauty, but why are they always just a character in a show or movie! Ugh! Okay, back on track. A lot of the banter between the friends felt natural and kind of funny at times. When the group realizes the one girl is dead, they immediately blame the guy who had a crush on her, and, for some reason he goes completely nuts and confesses to it. Well that would be fine except the twist is he wasn't the killer. I get that they wanted to emphasize the twist, but it comes off stupid when a character goes that much off the deep end needlessly. The ghost photo looked pretty good, and I liked the use of the girl's ghost appearing in the TV even if it demonstrated how low the budget must have been; it did look kind of scary even if it was a photoshop job. Eh, a moderate story with moderate thrills enhanced by a likable lead and a good premise.
Ms. Konno in my own ghost photo. I tried to do a regular screen capture but Amazon uses low graphics.
Segment 4 Peeping Tom: A shy, stalker-ish guy follows the woman he loves during her day to day activities while snapping the occasional photo. When he begins to capture ghostly images, he is faced with the dilemma of how to tell the woman as antics ensue. I would say this is the worst of the bunch which was highly disappointing given how funny this might have potentially turned out. As creepy as the main guy can be, he did have a certain charm to him with his goofball approach since he was painted more as a secret admirer than a hardcore stalker. I can see a story like this becoming an awkward romance flick if done a different way. It sucked, the two don't even end up together as you'd think considering this was supposed to be a comedy/horror. I guess I'll applaud them for not giving in to cliches, but come on! And the ghost that is haunting the girl is supposed to be him or something? It made no sense at all. How the hell can he be a ghost if he's taking photos and chilling out with his little turtle buddy?! Plus, he talks to people damn it! The girl he's stalking is cute but nothing to write home about; hell, I would have rather had her friend! I'm starting to think I get too invested in these movies sometimes. So, yeah, the ghost photos were just okay, the scares were nonexistent, the comedy was funny up until the end, and, once again, this segment was hindered by wasted potential.
Segment 5 Strange Delivery: After receiving a mysterious photo in the mail of a family surrounded by dozens of ghostly hands, a woman becomes haunted. I think you already know what I'm going to say here, right? So much wasted potential! Actually, only this story and the first segment could have been full length films if they divided out the material. The premise is so cool, but the mystery of the photo and resolution are so unbelievably lame. Apparently, for some unknown reason, a guy mails the photo to people, they become haunted, try to make it go away by tracing its origin to some house only to be consumed by the spirits within. We don't know how or why this is happening, what's the goal of the man other than something to do with his mother, where the photo came from or is the man one of the people in the photo, and, finally, it leaves you further frustrated because this is the last story! I would have loved to see these ideas fleshed out better and expanded upon. A lot of the scares are things we've seen a thousand times before, but with better effects they still could have left an impression. But more so, this could have had an elaborate and interesting mystery to unravel. So disappointing.
There were most certainly a lot of good ideas incorporated in the film as a whole, but most of it was not executed to it's maximum ability for various reasons. I hate to see this much potential go to waste given how many shitty movies are out there overshadowing a film like this. But it is reassuring to know there are still new ideas being created or at least new outlooks on existing stories. I would hope this movie maybe gets more support at some point; it doesn't even have a wikipedia page! I wanted to rate this film higher, but it just didn't deliver enough for me to go any higher and most of its rating comes from creativity more than quality. With that being said, I would still highly recommend this as a decent film well worth your time.
Notable Moment: In the first segment when the camera angle is situated perfectly for something to appear in the hazard lights of the car. Grr, if only we had a little grudgey action right then!
Final Rating: 6/10
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