Ju-on: Owari no hajimari

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.

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...

While this might not be as good as some of its predecessors, it is a pretty decent reboot with great scares and an anachronistic plot.The fact that there are two POV's makes it seem a bit unique compared to a few horrors with a linear plot. But despite having such great suspense, atmosphere and a decent plot. It does also have its flaws. While I did like the sound effects that were used in this film, the film seemed to go way too extreme with some of them and made them a bit too loud.

Now I'm going to put my thoughts and stars out of ten put into the work they made.

Suspense - 9.4/10 = The suspense on the film manages to catch a high score as it makes the film more better as we get further onto it. It could do a little bit more improvements, but overall I think the suspense in this film would probably be one of the best I've seen in films I've watched.

Plot - 7.4/10 = While it was a bit repetive with a few flaws to the plot. It still is a very decent story line that supports the suspense further on. The anachronism order is what makes the plot even more decent. Although, I do wish that it could've branched out more in terms of narrative and ideas, because some plot points had potential, but eventually became slightly stale further on. Still doesn't mean it wasn't bearable though.

Sound Effects - 8.7/10 = The sound effects that are used in the film can be a bit loud for your ears sometimes, but are very unique in their own ways. The film perfectly deforms simple sounds into what sounds horrifying and scary.

To conclude this review: This film is not as strong as some Ju On movies, in my opinion, but does have some features that do make it stand out from most movies in the franchise - such as the color palette of the film being slightly dull (in a good way from my view but some will disagree), and instead of it being quiet, it was kinda loud (and no, I don't mean loud as in there's multiple jumpscares, I mean loud in terms of the sound effects) although some others will also disagree with me on this.

My overall rating for this film, will be 9/10.

(Edited in 14th April 2020 at 6:58 PM GMT - extension of plot section, some word changes, and a final consensus before rating)

Another scary flick in this long running Jap-horror series that seems to run out of new tricks this time around. The SCARE here is still scary and creepy, however it just feels too repetitive and we can see that it tarted to run out of any new ideas or scares here. Even they might have some new ideas here but in the end those scenes unfortunately just become laughable and make the film even less scarier and just become an embarrassment to this respected franchise. I have to admit I did laugh out loud in one of the scenes because of that. There are also some GORES here but nothing that shocking or that you haven't seen before from other horror films. Overall, this latest Ju-On film may have some classic scares here and there but in the end, the film is still a disappointing one in the series that try to bring in some new scares but ultimately resulting in becoming a laughable and forgettable one instead. >>C+<<

It's awful. Avoid it. I waste my money on this, definitely need a refund. It's so nothing in the beginning and super funny at the end. My friend sleep the whole movie and only wakes up when the whole cinema is laughing. Yes, we all laugh at the ghost/alien(or whatever that is). And did I tell you we were watching it at midnight. Yes, that boring. You might enjoy the comedy but only if you can bare yourself through the whole movie. Half of the audience walk out.

I always love Ju-on movies but this one is definitely a miss. The cast is OK but the directing, the plot, the ghost all wrong. Overall, you get the point.