Number 2: Noroi: The Curse (2005)

THE PARANORMAL PASTOR’S COUNTDOWN gives us Noroi: The Curse, a realistic, pattern-based horror with documentary realism and regional folklore.

Where The Medium fails, Noroi: The Curse succeeds. This film is the second cross cultural one on this list, and boy, is it a masterpiece. I’m proud to honor it with a silver metal. Released in 2005, the documentary style movie is the supposedly finished film of the now missing Kobayashi as he investigated the Kagutuba demon legend.

This film is layered, and what makes it a realistic masterpiece is each level is coated with realism. The first thing the viewer will notice is how it is structured like a true crime documentary. It presents itself as the finished investigative documentary of Kobayashi. It features interviews, news clips, home videos, archival research, psychic experiments, and field investigations. It has it all and presents it in a convincing manner.

The other thing I love about this movie is the slow-burn, procedural style investigation. It relies on building the horror gradually rather than jerking you with jump scares. Throughout the film we get small anomalies coupled with subtle background details. You begin to notice behavioural changes in people as well as pattern recognition in the phenomena. It feels like watching a journalist uncover a real case rather than actors “performing” fear.

But what about the local folklore presentation of the Kagutaba? How does it compare to The Medium on this aspect? It keeps the realism the entire time. Like The Medium, the regional folklore is woven into the story in a realistic way. It references old rituals, shows old footage, and ties disappearances together across time. Unlike The Medium, it doesn’t lose its restraint towards the end and bow down to chaos and cinematic flair.

I have to also give props to the actors in this one. They sell this movie! They’re subdued and documentary-like. They don’t run around screaming at everything and they don’t totally throw off investigator restraint. They’re confused, skeptical, and uncomfortable. Not a lot of theatrics in this film. When you add to this the natural lighting, handheld cameras, low-quality footage, and TV studio segments, the viewer gets a genuine experience in realism.

But alas it is number 2, so it has to have some flaws, right? Yes, and they are minute. It could be argued some of the ritual elements seem awfully stylized. We also have the conspiracy scale starting to tip towards the end. Some have criticized the finale for leaning more supernatural than ambiguous. I get that. However, I would like to push back by saying that oftentimes when you deal with demonic entities, you don’t get the ambiguous ending in an investigation like you do with ghosts. 

In closing, I do want to share why I ranked this film above The Blackwell Ghost. There are several reasons but I’ll just give you the biggest two. The first reason has to do with the format and how it relates to creating a holistic realism experience. Noroi mirrors real-world investigative formats. It gives us layered media in a way that makes it feel institutional and systematic. The Blackwell Ghost gives us one man, one house, and mostly one camera perspective. This can help realism and intimacy in some ways, but it lacks the broader investigative ecosystem that Noroi taps into.

Second has to do with pattern recognition versus manifestation. Noroi builds through recurring symbols, behavioral anomalies, subtle audio disturbances, and gradual case interconnections. The supernatural phenomena creeps to the forefront through the pattern discovery. In The Blackwell Ghost we get clear, physical manifestations such as direct responses to questions, audible knocks, and door movements. Though this is minimal and shows restraint, when compared to Noroi, it can feel like “proof events” over ambiguous phenomena. This doesn’t take away from what The Blackwell Ghost sets out to accomplish because it is extremely solid for what it is. However, when compared to Noroi, it falls just below it in creating an overall authentic viewing experience.

Final rating: Noroi gets a 4.7/5 on the realism scale.

Known by his fans as “The Paranormal Pastor,” JD Hill brings a unique and original touch to the dark fiction genre. His twenty plus years in ministry have afforded him the opportunity to encounter people from all walks of life and in a myriad of situations. These experiences have leaked into his stories in numerous ways. He is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and has four children.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.