Tomie: Anrimiteddo

Easily one of the best Tomie films. Not high praise because so many of those films are quite terrible. This one rises above the rest with better acting and better pacing than the rest!

But the special effects are god awful.

Don't expect too much. Just have fun with it!

1. The ninth installment and reboot of the Tomie film series. A sloppier and messy reboot with questionable direction, performances, dialogues and overall quality. A CGI mess with gorier and nastier body horror elements.

2. The ninth installment and reboot of the Tomie film series. A sloppier and messy reboot with questionable direction, performances, dialogues and overall quality. A CGI mess with gorier and nastier body horror elements.

3. The ninth installment and reboot of the Tomie film series. A sloppier and messy reboot with questionable direction, performances, dialogues and overall quality. A CGI mess with gorier and nastier body horror elements.

Rarely do I take the time and effort to write something about a movie I've watched, but after suffering through this entire movie I felt compelled to warn anyone who might consider watching it. If I can prevent one person from wasting their time on this wretched movie, this review was worth my time.

We'll start with the acting. It was awful. Only the "heroine" of the movie, Tsukiko (Moe Arai), looked as if she might belong in a professionally made movie. Her performance wasn't good by any stretch, but it wasn't laughably bad like EVERY SINGLE other main actor. The villain, Tomie (Miu Nakamura), was annoying from the very beginning of the movie. And she only got worse as the movie crept along. The parents' performances were ridiculous, but not overly annoying like Tomie.

The story made no sense. Every time I thought I might be starting to understand where the movie was trying to go, it abruptly changed scenes and completely ruined any progress it may have been making.

The special effects were TERRIBLE. I've seen better special effects in '80s B-movies. Not much to say here other than the movie looked cheaply made.

I'm no expert on Japanese horror movies, but I've seen a fair share and I've liked a lot of them too, but this one had absolutely no redeeming qualities to speak of. It wasn't even "so bad it was humorous." At no point in the movie did I crack a smile or think "you know, maybe this ISN'T the biggest waste of my time I could have possibly spent." Maybe there's just some cultural thing I'm not getting. It's possible there's an audience for a movie like this, but you'd REALLY have to be into bad horror movies with bad plots that make no sense, bad acting, and bad special effects to appreciate this movie.

In summary, I can't remember a movie I've ever enjoyed less.

Here comes the first not so positive review of this movie because I had high expectations and by the end I was a bit disappointed.

First I want to say that I'm a fan of Asian horror, so I'm not the average viewer just coming here to bash it. It's very original in it's plot and imagery, and that's what makes it worth watching in my opinion. It starts as a pretty serious story with the emphasis on suspense but then it turns into something else entirely and here the problems begin. There is just too much of everything and I found myself laughing because it was so ridiculously overdone. The cheap but disgusting effects doesn't exactly make it better but the acting is good and keeps it together in one piece, allowing you to explore this descent into madness for what it's worth. First there is one Tomie, then one and a half, then three...wait, how many was that again? Yes, it's like that...

I think the point was to make something different that stands out and as such it's very successful. Sometimes you even stare in awe because you don't know what to expect the next second and that's very good because it's impossible to predict the ending. But overall it's too weird and disjointed to be a solid piece of horror. I can recommend this to the hardcore fan but not the average viewer, unless you want something new that crosses the line.

The "Tomie" franchise is probably the most disappointing series of horror films I've ever seen. Despite an interesting premise (involving a demon girl who cannot die and causes violent obsessions from her acquaintances), every single installment (up to this point) has been painfully boring and sleep-inducing. When I heard that they were making a new one, I had zero interest. Then I heard that Noboru Iguchi ("The Machine Girl') was directing it, so I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did.

Here's a plot summary from Asianmediawiki: "Tsukiko (Moe Arai) is a member of the photography club in high school. On her way home with friend Kae (Aika Ota), Tsukiko runs into older sister Tomie (Miu Nakamura) who goes to the same high school. Tomie is also with Toshio (Kensuke Owada) - a guy Tsukiko has a secret crush on. Tsukiko is consumed with fierce jealousy over her sister, but at the same time is intoxicated with Tomie's beauty. Tsukiko keeps pressing the trigger on her camera. At that time Tomie tells her sister that she knows what she is feeling. When Tsukiko stops taking pictures, Tomie is crushed by a steel frame that falls from a building under construction. One year later, Tsukiko still suffers nightmares over her sister's death. Slowly, her daily life returns to some sense of normalcy. On Tomie's 18th birthday, her parents and Tsukiko stand around a birthday cake in her honor. At that time someone knocks on their door. Tomie stands in the doorway with rich black hair and her beauty shining even more brightly. Her parents are delighted to see Tomie and welcomes her back with tears pouring out. Meanwhile, Tsukiko stands there unable to believe what is transpiring. Tsukiko's nightmare now turns into reality and her terror is only set to begin."

There is no question that Iguchi infused more entertainment value in this one film than all of its predecessors combined. It starts off with a bloody death scene and becomes more outrageous and blackly comical with each passing minute. There's more creativity than one might expect in terms of the horror elements, and the actresses are good. It fails to rise above simple popcorn horror, but it is fun to watch for its WTF moments.

I hope Iguchi directs another "Tomie" film, because he's the only director who has displayed enough energy to make it entertaining.