La maldición: el inicio del fin

I loved it. Whats not to like? Don't expect alot,its a simple story of a teacher and her student

Its from ju-on franchise ,which means basic story plot should have to be the same,just accept it ,but if you want to watch something simple and horror you are in for a treat. Some scenes are quite discomforting and the best part is in a simple movie like this ,you would not have expected those.So believe me Set your bar low and then watch it.

Horror sequences were good,not too scary or gory,but enough thrilling to keep you engaged.All of them cast members acted beautifuly specialy the main protagonist,she was charming.The cinematography and background music were okay, overall a pretty solid movie for a one time watch.

And yes you can make Nozomi sasaki stand in a 2 hour movie with some expressions on her face, i m ready to watch it. No one can deny . She's just born cute

Interesting... I just noticed that EVERY negative review so far (about 5) has been voted down and has a poor score. And, the ONLY relatively good review has a 10/10...? REALLY...??? I honestly wish people would stop doing that (sigh...)

Anyway... First, I should say that I have not seen the other Ju-on entries in this franchise so far. I know... start at the beginning, right...? Anyway, I pretty much have a good idea what the overall premise has been throughout the series of films, so I figured that since a FEW reviews weren't too bad about this one, it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and watch this one first since I happened to have it.

I will say that from what I know and from what I have read about the other Ju-on films, I'm guessing that people, unlike me, who HAVE seen the others will likely find this one somewhat repetitive in nature. But, since I HAVEN'T seen the others, I figured that there was a good chance that I would enjoy this one to some degree since with me the premise wouldn't have worn itself out yet. It honestly did start out fairly well right out of the gate with nice, drawn out suspenseful scenes and a decent atmosphere and it pretty much grabbed you right away. However, in my lowly and wretched opinion, I felt that after about 45 minutes or so, it basically was starting to repeat itself, and not in a terribly creative way. Just the basic 'Ju-on' premise that anyone who happens to walk into a cursed house gets snatched later. Annnnnnnnnnd... that was about it.... So quite honestly, right about that point in the movie, I really kind of lost interest.

There WERE some effective scares and individual scenes which were done quite well and directed in a way that was indeed scary. BUT... a handful of good scenes unfortunately do NOT necessarily make for a good film. My take on it, FWIW, is that perhaps if the director had changed up the look and feel of the film a bit more instead of having this continuously monotonous look, and if he had injected a LOT more 'Style' into the visuals, maybe that would have kept the audience's interest better and made up for the repetitive plot, I don't know...

So, a good start, definitely... but, ultimately I felt that it was way too monotonous in it's look and style. And the story never really seemed to go anywhere.

Sorry, but the film just wasn't really very interesting after a while, so I cannot really recommend it as having enough mood and style to carry it, which COULD have helped a lot considering the very simple nature of the story itself. I gave it a '5', which is a bit generous overall, but that's because I thought it started very well but sadly ran out of steam about half way through.

This is one of those cases where I would say, just read a good book instead...

Present me with an Asian horror movie and I will immediately sit down and watch it. And being familiar with the "Ju-On" franchise, of course I will sit down to watch this Japanese horror movie, as I was given the chance to do so.

However, I must say that "Ju-on: Owari no hajimari" (aka "Ju-On: The Beginning of the End") was somewhat of a swing and a miss.

First of all, there was absolutely nothing scary anywhere to be found in this movie. Well, unless you are an Asian, of course, then you'll find the little white painted boy and his floor and ceiling crawling mom scary. But for a seasoned horror veteran as myself, nothing scary in this movie at all.

Secondly, the storyline was just rubbish. It kept jumping to and from various storylines and following different characters. Sure, it was interwoven, but it just had very little appeal, especially since none of the storylines were particularly interesting and had zero scary stuff in them.

It should be said that the acting in the movie was actually good, taking into consideration the fact that the actors and actresses had very little to work with in terms of a proper script.

All in all, "Ju-On: The Beginning of the End" was a less than mediocre foray into the "Ju-On" genre, and it was a weak movie in itself. My rating of the movie is a meager three out of ten stars.

In recent years, we have experienced a fair bit of disappointments from the J-horror releases. From the unremarkable extensions of classics such as The Ring (1998), to the mundane new additions to the franchise of Ju- On (2003) which features the iconic pale white kid. Ju-On 3: The Beginning of the End, contrary to what the name suggests, is the seventh installment of the franchise of Ju-On. This is the first film that has no involvement from the series creator, Takashi Shimizu. Instead, a familiar name in Japanese horror film making, Masayuki Ochiai (director of Infection, 2006) takes over. Will J-Horror films ever come back with something equivalent to one of those we've seen in the golden era of J- Horror?

For those who are familiar with the Ju-On franchise, you may already know that it adopts a format where the narrative is being 'chopped up', going back and forth to tell a story. Hence it might frustrate the viewer a little, trying to keep up and link the dots. This time, the story focuses on Yui (Nozomi Sasaki), an elementary school teacher who will slowly uncover the true reason for one of her student's absence from school. She pays the family a visit at their house, only to unravel the tragedy that happened 10 years ago. The vengeful spirits are still out to haunt for the next victims – seems like anyone who enters the 'cursed house' will not come out unscathed.

The movie begins with a hand-held camera styled sequence, which closely follows the first group of people who discovered the body of a child being left to die in the summer heat. Brace yourself for the first 'boo' scare of the movie, which sets out the tone and atmosphere of the movie. As much as we humans have this tendency to be masochistic (i.e. it's so spooky but it's so good), the truth is we won't deliberately walk into an obvious trap/danger. Hence in that respect, you may find some sequences in the movie rather illogical. Nonetheless, the whole horror atmosphere was well maintained from beginning to end – giving you the chills and keeping you in good suspense. This was supported by the seamless use of horror tracks and sound effects, one of the hallmarks of Japanese horror movies.

Director Masayuki Ochiai takes a slightly different approach as Takashi Shimizu when it comes to the scares. Masayuki has a penchant to use more graphic scenes to create the shock and impact. While it does create an impression, the prolonged screen time of some of the grossly gruesome scenes numb the eyes. The converse of having less is more will probably work better in this aspect.

Nevertheless, this new addition to the Ju-On franchise is not too shabby a J-Horror. Though any may say that this still does not match up with the first theatrical release of Ju-On in 2003, Ju-On 3 has set another milestone for the Ju-On cult for giving it a more edgy and modern remake, redefining it for the new generation that have never encountered what Ju-On is. While many of the horror sequences have to do with daily activities, be glad that a lot of them are not the common experience in Singapore – hence it won't haunt you through those endless nights.

I watched this movie last night right after I watched Ju-on: Black Ghost (2009), which was rather disappointing. I had seen its co-installment, Ju-On: White Ghost (2009) the night before, which was better in terms of scares and atmosphere as well as being more cohesive, still, Black Ghost wasn't a bad effort.

This movie felt like a huge improvement from the previous two installments, which weren't all too bad, but they could have been scarier. I did like that they were shorter than most movies, clocking in at only 60 minutes. This one picks up the pace again that is very similar to Ju-on: The Grudge (2002).

Now, this is not a sequel to Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2003), so there are certain reviewers incorrectly referring to this movie as Ju-on 3. This is a reboot... an American one is in the works as well. I, for one, really like the non-linear storyline and I never get bored of it. And this is coming from someone who has seen 5 Ju-on movies this week alone (sixth one will be Ju-on: The Final Curse (2015)).

The scares, or the story in general now, has been used in different variations overtime, so it has gotten pretty repetitive now up to the point where I wasn't scared but rather impressed by the changes they made in this movie (talking about the last few scenes here). The very ending was funny and pretty disturbing at the same time.

All in all, I'd recommend this movie to everyone who loves the Ju-on series, it will not be disappointing. Let's see what the sequel, Ju-on: The Final Curse has in store for us.