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Gekijô-ban: Zero (2014)
Decent Japanese horror movie, but a lousy big screen adaptation of fatal frame
Adaptation of the novel "Zero: A Curse Affecting Only Girl", which is based on the acclaimed Japanese horror game series, "project zero".
Let me tell you if you are a lover of either the series or Japanese horror based on the folklore of their culture, it can be a rather disappointing starting point.
Having as a reference the character Ophelia by William Shakespeare, the story does not take much presence of all the themes that the games present us, now we are facing the life of some teenagers in an orphanage of Catholic nuns, where a phenomenon is present that includes the disappearance of girls who end up being found dead out of nowhere, This plus touching taboos such as lebianism, a topic that is quite partial to understand the subplot between a girl who does not feel attraction for a boy and the other (whose life was undone by the assumption of her curse, supposedly guilty of these phenomena happen).
Maybe Mind I could have expected a lot from all of this, but without the presence of the magic of the series it is relying on to make its own adaptation, it feels inspiring to see them change the mere appearance of Buddhist/Shinto religious themes and is now of the Christian religion, maybe you might think this doesn't change the implication of the curses causing the girls to be possessed by a spirit, but it feels flat throughout when there is no moment that makes you feel tension, being that the whole moment is waiting to see how all the mysteries are solved until the last few minutes and the whole thing is the key moment to explain what makes these disappearances haunt the all-girls religious school, the cinematography meets its standard as a movie set with teenage girls, you may feel attached to see growing girls begin to feel forbidden love and thus something that involves its own ritual of commemoration, but as I said, it doesn't feel like what you'd expect when you see the name of a franchise so recognized and acclaimed by the public and the media.
Just imagine if there was an adaptation of resident evil (which already exists and I won't say much about how little it sticks to the original work) but this time it is presented with its own characters surviving the waves of zombies without the need to finish them, what I mean, the first fatal frame showed us the story of a haunted mansion, where the protagonist has to use a special camera called "Camere Obscura", which is not used at any time (being at the end only an element in the background to show us that the camera of the son of a school graduate, could observe the ghosts of the girls who had died) while something that may be something that was seen, was while playing the theme of the twins, which is part of what was presented in Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly, here we have a subplot where two twins have to decide which one to live for and the other one has to die, this until the end explains us what is the point to know which one is the girl in the picture that made the missing ones turn out to be dead.
At the end of the day, it's just witnessing paranormal events where it starts to get interesting almost half way through the production, it might be something interesting if you look at it as another horror movie that involves suicidal themes or that relates to teenagers, but don't expect the same experience that the franchise has been carrying, I recommend it only if you expect something that is not fatal frame.