Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2010

©2010 「NECK」製作委員会

This bizarre piece of comedy-horror is pretty far off the wall, and only marginally funny. It starts with a vignette of Sugina (Sumina Teramoto) as a bratty child who delights in frightening her friends. Years later, she’s a graduate student (portrayed by Saki Aibu) at a respected university, where her highly prized work consists of trying to attract ghosts. Toward that end, she tricks football captain Tomokazu (Junpei Mizubata) to her lab and puts him into a wooden box with only his head protruding. When no ghost appears, the jock starts working with Sugina to improve her “Neck machine.” They enlist the help of film producer Eiko (Chiaki Kuriyama) and TV writer Takashi (Yuta Hiraoka), who has, coincidentally enough, constructed his own Neck machine in a haunted house in the woods. This annoying film tries to capitalize on the success of Japanese horror movies, but it’s a joke with no punch line. (97 min)