Shock Labyrinth 3D
J-Horror’s first 3D movie – director Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On: The Grudge) is back with some new tricks, and some old ones…
Starring some of Japan’s hottest young talent, including Ai Maeda (Death Note: The Last Name), Suzuki Matsuo (Robo-Geisha) and Shoichiro Masumoto (Goemon, Ichi, Tokyo Gore Police), Takashi Shimizu, creator and director of the Ju-On / The Grudge series, returns with yet another J-Horror style tale of young adults in peril… only this time in 3D!
(And yes, there is a girl with long hair!)
When a small group of young friends sneak into a closed haunted house attraction at a theme park they never expect that it will go disastrously wrong and one of them, Yuki, will go missing.
Ten years later they meet up again, on the very night that Yuki turns up at their door and leads them back to the fairground attraction where it all began. Soon they relive the night and face the terrible truth behind her disappearance.
Inspired by the world’s largest walk-through ‘haunted house’, the Haunted Hospital attraction at the world famous Fuji-Q Highland theme park, Shimizu enters familiar territory here. Sure, we have 3D thrills – on the DVD at least these may be ‘old school’, red/blue effect, (which is just as well – I don’t know about you but I sure don’t have a 3D telly!) though still better looking than most I’ve seen up to this point – but we also have overlapping timelines.
Once again, as Shimizu has done before, he uses the initial idea of these timelines interestingly. I really like the fact that the teenagers turn out to be responsible for many of the scares they received as children. Yet, once again, he fails to think these through properly, gets a little sloppy, and ends up with a construct that, in the light of day, leaves gapping plot holes. Including a final reveal that will disappoint, and leave you asking more questions.
Of course, that’s kind of what Shimizu was aiming for. As far as disorientating an audience and building an undeniably creepy atmosphere goes, Shimizu is an expert. This time I’m not convinced he really delivers on scares here, though; occasionally I just found this becoming unintentionally funny, as Shimizu descends into silliness. (The animated soft toy bunny failed to raise any hairs with me!)
There’s a hint of Dead Of Night, as our lead Ken struggles to remember the truth of what happened that night, and a dash of Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond, as our characters enter a real hospital only to find that it turns into the theme park version, yet you can’t help but wish he didn’t follow the example of Pirates Of The Caribbean and do something more with adapting a theme ride rather than having his characters, erm, enter a theme ride?
The parts well played, the film looks good, and sure, the 3D is well done. I’m just not sure it actually adds anything other than a gimmick to what is an okay (but by no means outstanding) slice of horror.
Shock Labyrinth 3D is released on DVD by Chelsea Film on Monday, 31st January.
DVD details
Distributor: Chelsea Films (UK)
Good master of the film includes both 2D and 3D versions, with two pairs of glasses in the box.
There's also a wealth of bonus material over the two discs, including plenty of behind the scenes featurettes on the making of the film.
