The Shock Labyrinth 3D (2009)

Ken (Yuya Yagira) returns to his hometown to catch up with some old friends, Motoki and Rin. During a thunderstorm, Yuki Tomoya (Misako Renbutsu), a girl that he and his friends thought was dead, comes back after being missing for nearly a decade. Years ago, as children, Ken and his friends went into an old haunted house by themselves and got scared out of their wits. They all escaped except for Yuki.

In the present, they try to reunite Yuki with her family but her mother is insane and her sister Miyu just can’t believe this girl is actually her sister. Yuki ends up falling down a flight of stairs but when they get her to the hospital, they find it deserted. Before long, Ken and the gang realize that they are trapped in a place that is both the haunted by the past and as dangerous as the present. I’m not sure what that sentence means.

I get why people don’t like this movie as it is rife with horror cliches but honestly, The Shock Corridor is so weird (and occasionally unsettling) that I can’t help but dig on it. The digital photography is slick, perhaps a little too slick but very colorful. The special effects are kind of corny but strange enough that they get a pass from me. The ambitious plot is successful at jumping back and forth through time without getting confusing. I went into this film with low expectations but I was charmed by what director Takashi Shimizu has been up to lately.

“Haven’t you figured it out? This is the house of horrors where it happened!”