The Complex (2013)

What makes it different from others?

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"The Complex" does deviate a bit from the standard Japanese horror genre with some pretty interesting twists, which was a very welcomed change of pace to the genre. However, the movie was nowhere near being scary, or I am just too seasoned and hardened to horror, and that resulted in a mediocre result.The story is about Asuka who moves into an older apartment complex, and soon after strange things start to happen which threaten to send Asuka's mind down a spiral of despair.Story-wise then "The Complex" was following a stereotypical 'how-to-make-a-horror-movie' blueprint, but it has some interesting twists and turn of events.The acting was good and helped the movie along quite well. Atsuko Maeda actually carried the lead quite well.The effects in "The Complex" were adequate, but not overly impressive or dazzling. But they did serve the purpose well enough.However, the lack of proper scares was the downfall that plummeted the movie into mediocrity. And as such, what could have been a unique movie ended up as a movie that you will Watch once and then never again.

Maybe you've seen this or something similar before and the story itself won't surprise you that much. But the movie is more than decent. The horror does work on quite a few levels, even if you can see the jump scare coming. Plus there is a story (even if it might feel a bit like a cheat in the end).The acting is nice, the characters well defined. There is some of the usual things you've come to known from horror movies from Asia. If you didn't get sick of it (some people can't see another woman with long hair hiding her face crawling on the floor or looking scary in general), you will get entertained and have a really good scary time

There are good twists and bad twists. Good twists are the ones which enrich the story with surprise without demolishing it. Bad twists are of the "It was just a dream" sort and just annihilate everything that happened so far. "The Complex" by director Hideo Nakata, maker of the famous Ringu movies, appears to have both kinds of twists. Any way, it has too many.Which is unfortunate because "The Complex" has a lot things going for it. Like the talented Atsuko Maeda, who plays Asuka, a girl who just freshly moved with her family into an apartment complex. Much to Asuka's distress, she's disturbed at night by strange noises coming from the apartment next door. Not much to our surprise, things are getting worse.I liked the camera work and editing. Like, at the beginning, a few effective camera moves and cuts introduce us to the main characters and give us a good sense of location, how the apartments are placed and what the environment of the building is like. Acting is well throughout, too. As for the pace, it is a bit slow at the beginning, but that's fine since it allows us to become familiar with the characters. And the characters are ones that I could care for.Everything was going fine, so I don't understand why Nakata had to add twists, which at times felt forced and disrupted the mood. In the Ringu movies, Nakata established ambiguous characters without sudden changes. Maybe he thought "The Complex" would otherwise have been not exciting enough? Actually, I liked its calm parts.

The director of this film, Hideo Nakata, is most famous as the man responsible for Ring (1998). That film proved to be one of the most memorable and iconic of all Japanese horror movies. And one of the most terrifying. So it was with great anticipation that I approached his new horror film, The Complex. It tells the story of a girl called Asuka who moves into a new apartment complex with her family. She quickly hears rumours that it is haunted and before long sinister unexplainable events begin to occur.The first impression is that this isn't of the standard of Ring. It doesn't have the incredible original central idea that underpinned that one and made it so creepy. However, like that one, The Complex takes its time building an atmosphere of dread that culminates in a pretty intense finale. Events build up piece by piece – an elderly neighbour is found dead next door, strange sounds are heard in the night and Asuka's parents seemingly have the exact same conversation each and every morning. The latter event is a clue of sorts, as it soon becomes apparent that Asuka's family all died in a bus crash leaving her the sole survivor. The conversation that she continually hears is the one they had on the fateful morning. The very fact that Asuka is not immediately aware of the impossibility of her parents living in the same house as her suggests that she may in fact be psychologically damaged. Are all the subsequent events in her head too? It's difficult to say on a single viewing but whatever the case, the supernatural events surround a little boy who it turns out is a malevolent ghost. He was tragically killed while hiding in a bin during a game of hide and seek and he now takes vengeance on the inhabitants of the complex where he once lived. In a similar way to traditional European vampire lore, he can only cause havoc on a person if they willingly let him into their home. Needless to say, one night he is given a chance to exert his evil; the very same night that a spiritualist attempts to exorcise him in an elaborate ritual.While The Complex is not of the standard of Ring, it still remains a very effective horror film. There is some potent imagery, particularly in the latter stages. While the combination of the supernatural ghost story with the psychological workings of the protagonists mind is done well and ensures that this is a film that would invite a re-watch.