US Title: Marebito
Japanese Title: 稀人 (“Rare Person?” Makes sense I guess… Better would be “Barely Human” I think…)

Take a dash of Dante’s Hell allusions, some modern surveillance tech, creepy myths about subterranean underworlds, vampirism, phobias, throw it all together, and you get Marebito.

After freelance videographer Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto) captures a guy knifing himself in the head in a subway station, he goes on a quest to find out why.  He quickly finds a lot more than he bargained for, as the ghost of the dead man escorts him into the nether regions below Tokyo, where there are things that shouldn’t be known.

He continues to explore these caverns on his own, dodging the demonic looking “Deros” until he comes across a naked, seemingly human girl (Tomomi Miyashita) chained to the rocks.  He takes her back to his apartment, where he soon realizes that she’s not entirely human, but is in fact a vampirish Dero halfbreed.

After figuring out what she needs to survive is human blood, he begins killing people and harvesting said blood to bring back to her.  Eventually, though, he realizes that she cannot stay “above”, and returns to the belly of Tokyo with her where he (presumably) stays….

I won’t say Marebito is a bad movie, actually its not that bad at all.  Skipping most of the typical J-Horror cliches (the black spots, the black haried ghosts, the splatter), it cuts right to the bone (no pun intended) and conveys a certain fear.

This is also amplified by Masuoka’s apparent fear of viewing things through anything but his camera.  As he walks around Tokyo filming anything and everything, the faces outside the camera lens blur away, as he puts it, whats on the camera is more real.

There isn’t a whole lot else to say about it, I’m afraid.  The “what is going to happen next” factor is what drives the movie.  Yeah I spoiled some of it for you, but the details are just too strange and scary-wonderful to explain away.  It doesn’t get too complicated, but there are subtleties that can’t be missed.

Director Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on, “The Grudge”) delivers the goods again.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434179/
Amazon: Marebito

Trailer below should be considered NSFW, you’ve been warned!