Directed by Takashi Shimizu. Starring : Yuya Yagira, Ai Maeda, Suzuki Matsuo, Ryo Katsuji, Misako Renbutso, Erina Mizuno. Ghost-Horror, Japan 2009, 85 mins. Certificate : 15.

Release Date : January 31st 2011, RRP : £15.99.

Director Takashi Shimizu played no small part in the J-Horror cycle that effortlessly infiltrated the Hollywood mainstream back in the early days of the 21st century. It was a time when Sarah Michelle Gellar turned up in theatrically released features and vengeful, ashen-faced Japanese girls with jet black hair crawled in a jarring fashion out of television sets, down staircases, etc. The cycle spawned a number of bonafide modern classics, from Hideo Nakata’s original, still-scary RINGU to the remarkable A TALE OF TWO SISTERS. But it also led to cinematic losers like the limp U.S. remake of SHUTTER and Shimizu was as guilty as anyone of milking the celluloid cash cow by endlessly rehashing his own, influential JU-ON / THE GRUDGE franchise.

The strikingly grim and fascinating MAREBITO - shown to largely positive feedback at Frightfest a few years back - was unique enough to make you wish that he hadn’t devoted so much of his career (in and out of his native country) to trudging through old territory. THE SHOCK LABYRINTH maybe Japan’s first 3-D horror movie but thematically and stylistically it’s as uninspired as another GRUDGE remake rather than a bold detour like MAREBITO. As gloomily fixated on death as much of Shimizu’s work, it’s a movie adaptation (read : advertisement) of a popular Fuji-q High Land amusement park attraction described as the “world’s longest horror house walk-through” and situated near Mount Fuji. It doesn’t come close to being as lame as its nearest movie equivalent - that useless Eddie Murphy vehicle THE HAUNTED MANSION of a few years back - but at its worst it still feels like the world’s longest movie simulation of a horror house walk-through.

Though evidently aimed at teenage audiences, complete with (“You know, for kids!”) 3-D, THE SHOCK LABYRINTH is far more slow and sombre than you might expect from a Hollywood interpretation of the same. It opens effectively enough with kids at a theme park breaking into a noted creepy fairground attraction, only for one of them to vanish without a trace in the ensuing frivolity. Ten years later, the missing girl, the grown-up Yuki (Misako Renbutso) turns up at one of her former friend’s houses, leading to a reunion. The past catches up with all of them when an injured Yuki is rushed to an unnaturally deserted hospital that would appear to be a supernaturally altered version of the “Shock Labyrinth” where it all began.

Arriving a good ten years too late to attract the market it aspires to, THE SHOCK LABYRINTH is as self-serious and foreboding as many of the noteworthy movies in the J-Horror boom. Its flashback-laden, time-jumping, reality-blurring narrative (hinging on a past tragedy) borrows from them freely. Shimizu hasn’t lost his gift for sustaining an ominous ambience, and some of the visuals (including recurring images of an unsettlingly barren winding staircase and some eerie business with porcelain dummies) generate a shudder, but it quickly turns into a ponderous horror videogame. Barely one-dimensional, unenthusiastic characters plod from one spooky level to the next and the most terrifying thing anyone can think of for them to face is a CG-embellished plush bunny toy with roving eyes.

The two disc set presents the movie in both 2-D and 3-D but, in either form, the visuals are mostly murky and unappealing. In 3-D, Shimizu makes impressive use of the added depth of field to bring alive the sinister interiors, and commendably keeps the gimmicky elements to a minimum, save for some hands comin’ at ya. But the format only really serves to reinforce the slackness of the pacing and the dearth of imagination on display.

Steven West.

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