The Black House (1999)

A timid insurance agent investigates a possible insurance fraud case that involves a death. As the facts are slowly revealed, he becomes progressively more frightened.

Director:

Yoshimitsu Morita

Writers:

Yûsuke Kishi (novel), Sumio Ohmori

Stars:

Seiyô Uchino, Shinobu Ôtake, Masahiko Nishimura

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Seiyô Uchino	...	(as Masaaki Uchino)
Shinobu Ôtake
Masahiko Nishimura
Misato Tanaka
Kaoru Kobayashi
Renji Ishibashi
Daikichi Sugawara	...	Osako
Katsunobu Ito	...	Sumifuji
Kenichi Katsura	...	Katsumi Kaneishi
Yasushi Machida
Chikako Yuri	...	Mitsuyo Onishi
Toshie Kobayashi	...	Teacher Hashimoto
Machiko Washio	...	Dr. Hatano
Asako Kobayashi	...	Hiromi Sakagami
Masayoshi Yamazaki

Storyline

A meek agent at the Showa Life Insurance company receives a phone call from a customer who says that she's planning to commit suicide and wants to know if her policy will pay out. Concerned about her safety, the agent visits her house only to find that her young son has hanged himself. As he investigates further, more and more people connected with this family start having "accidents," and if he's not careful, he might be next.

---

Plot Keywords:

bowling ball | gold fish in a toilet | bowling | gold fish | insurance agent | 

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Did You Know?

Connections

Remade as Legally Declared Dead (2019)

---

Soundtracks

Chronopsychology
Performed by m-flo
(Rhythm Zone)
During end credits

User Reviews

the problem with horror movies

The problem with the majority of horror movies, and why I dislike most of them, is that the writers are so lazy or inept at character creation. Instead of drawing us into the film we're too often pushed away by their complete lack of human qualities to which we can relate; logic being the most neglected.

A horror writer may be skilled at fantasizing a scene or story that is scary. However, when creating the character with whom we should follow into the horror fantasy they too often fail. They resort to having the character make completely stupid or illogical decisions in order to place them in harms way, and keep them there. This makes me want to scream and storm out of the theater or burst out laughing.

I did much more laughing in this film. While the story and plot twist is pretty good the main character's actions are inexcusable. When a psycho killer is slowly approaching you with a knife a logical person will not stand and wait. Also that person will not run a short distance then wait for the killer to catch up. This movie should have ended way too many times but instead the cheap thrills just kept repeating themselves.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

13 November 1999 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Black House

Company Credits

Production Co:

Asmik Ace Entertainment

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1