Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2011

I kind of liked the clever, low-budget resourcefulness of the first film and found it nicely creepy. The first sequel (actually a prequel) less so. The effectiveness of this new one, again a prequel, depends on the audience’s continuing tolerance for this fading, found-video subgenre of horror. It seems to have tossed the effective less-is-more approach in favor of more conventional scares. This audience member was occasionally bored, jumped at the appropriate “Boo!” moments, and was put off by the obvious contrivances. Oddly, only about half the stuff in the trailer is in the movie. Wassup with that?