Here is this week’s winning review of Ju-On, by Elena Rapondzhieva, with a copy of the prize DVD also going to Jason Kurmoo.

‘The movie aims to grab you from the beginning with an intriguing plot and shocking scenes, which make you jump. And to some extent it succeeds.

Nevertheless, it takes no more than two minutes for every uneducated viewer to realize that the whole thing is filmed on a very low budget and  the whole horror effect of the movie relies on the old trick cut scene – show shocking image – return back to scene, aided by dramatic music. Contributing is the fact that the story is actually quite shocking itself. Insanity, incest in different variations, unsuspecting and innocent victims, brutal and seemingly pointless murders and finally suicide, unlocking the supernatural wave of death – all scrambled to give us a taste of Japanese horror.

On the how, however, despite the poor quality of the production, Ju-On largely achieves its goal – to shatter your inner peace and make you grateful it’s all just a movie. It is very intelligently built and obviously made by film professionals, who know the viewers’ psychology.  Instead of making the viewer wonder what’s going to happen next, the movie aims for a bigger effect by making him/her anticipate what will happen and wonder WHEN and HOW exactly, which is much more nerve wrecking.

In contrast to Hollywood horror movies, Ju-On: Old Lady in White doesn’t’ have any action scenes whatsoever. The murders, in fact, happen almost casually. And impressively enough, this also works to the movie’s advantage – the simplicity and by-the-way manner in which the psychopathic teenager kills the members of his family is almost as shocking as the murders themselves.

Finally, the acting is not quite brilliant, but it’s very satisfactory and you have to give them credit because most of the movie involves tension scenes played out by only one actor at a time and God knows, pretending to be scared in a kitchen for 5 minutes takes talent!

My advice: If you are a movie critic or a film professional of some kind – go and see what can be achieved with limited resources. If you simply like horror movies – go and see it and it won’t waste your time. If you are neither – better move on to something different, because this movie is for connoisseurs.’