Occult (film)

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Occult
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kōji Shiraishi
Screenplay by	Kōji Shiraishi
Based on	inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft
Starring	Mika Azuma Horiken Kōen Kondō
Cinematography	Kōji Shiraishi
Edited by	Kōji Shiraishi
Production companies	Creative Axa Company Ltd. Image Rings
Distributed by	Creative Axa Company Ltd. Image Rings
Release date	February 28, 2009 (2009-02-28)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Occult (オカルト, Okaruto) is a 2009 J-horror, "found footage" film in the form of a documentary. The movie was written and directed by Kōji Shiraishi.^[1]

Plot[]

In 2005, a man named Ken Matsuki kills two people and injures a third at a Japanese resort called Myogasaki. Following the act, Matsuki jumps off a nearby cliff and his body is never found. Three years later, a documentary film crew led by Koji Shiraishi begin a project chronicling the aftermath of the incident and interview several survivors. One of them is the injured victim, Shohei Eno, an unemployed man who had a strange petroglyph-like symbol carved into his back by Matsuki. Eno claims to have experienced frequent paranormal occurrences, including UFO sightings and disembodied voices, since the incident. He also states that he doesn't blame Matsuki for the stabbing; in fact, he is thankful that Matsuki said to him that "it is your turn", which he interprets as a command that Eno fulfill a "ceremony" mandated by God, as had been done by Matsuki. Seeing that Eno is financially troubled, the crew agree to pay him on the condition that they are allowed to film the occurrences, which Eno calls "miracles".

Shiraishi's crew come to be repulsed by Eno, especially since they think that he will follow Matsuki's path of mass murder. From Matsuki's father, the crew learns that Eno's symbol resembles the birthmark possessed by Matsuki since childhood. Their search brings them to Kutoro Rock (九頭呂岩, literally "Nine-Headed Spine Rock"), a formation at the peak of Mount Ohiruyama, where Shiraishi had a bizarre experience five years previously in which he found nine leeches biting his left leg. There, the crew find a stone with Matsuki and Eno's petrogylph symbols inscribed on it. According to a horror film director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Kutoro Rock was dedicated to Hiruko, a Japanese god with the form of leech. Meanwhile, the film Eno shoots following his daily routine reveals a number of leech-like apparitions in the skies above Tokyo.

Shiraishi takes Eno to a Korean barbecue restaurant to get him to talk openly about what the voices tell him to do. Drunk and relaxed, Eno reveals that he has been saving ¥700,000 to build a bomb so he can commit a suicide bombing in a busy street in Shibuya, which he claims would send him and his victims to God's realm. Shiraishi resolves to stop Eno, but on the way home, he sees Eno's head surrounded by the leach-like apparitions and find his leg bleeding as it did when the leaches bit it. He reluctantly agrees to cooperate, intending to record Eno's plot for other people to identify. After spending a day with Eno prior to the bombing, Eno offers him a ¥100 coin to repay one he borrowed long before. Shiraishi asks him to later return it and the camera from the realm he expects to go to with the bombing. The blast ends up claiming 108 lives, including Shinobu Kuribayashi, a member of Shiraishi's film crew. Eno's body, like Matsuki, is never found. Shiraishi, meanwhile, is sentenced to prison for complicity.

21 years later, Shiraishi is released from prison and reunites with his producer. They return to the Korean barbecue, where Eno's camera and the ¥100 coin he borrowed years previously fall from the ceiling. The footage inside the camera shows Eno being sent immediately after the bombing to a Lovecraftian-like universe which he screams is Hell. Leech and jellyfish-like creatures surround him in the almost cartoonish realm. Eno screams for help among other people's torments before a leech consumes him.

See also[]

• The Curse (2005), another "found footage" mockumentary by the same director
• Shirome (2010), another "found footage" mockumentary by the same director
• Chō Akunin (2011), another "found footage" film by the same director

References[]

External links[]

• Occult at IMDb