Marebito

The gloppy sound effects are so over-the-top, they invite laughter, and the bloodsucking scenes are allowed to become absurdly repetitious.

It's actually a pretty lousy thriller.

Marebito is a disturbing supernatural drama that leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Marebito is no conventional vampire movie but a speculation into the notion that ancient people could sense alien beings in their midst.

And if the trip doesn't have the clear-cut directions of a Hollywood film, it has all the ideas -- and cold, unsettling flights of fantasy -- of a nightmare, where faceless people look and look and look, but never see.

For Japanese horror aficionados only, and even they are likely to be underwhelmed by this stew of half-baked ideas and creepy sensations.

An almost stunningly incompetent piece of work...

It neither musters the campy horror of Ju-on nor follows through on its art-house potential.

It is far from a completely successful experiment, but it does create something with a unique enough identity to be worth exploring.

As creepy as it is frustrating.

It drops names such as Madame Blavatsky for gravitas, but has as little to do with theosophy as a Westerner has to do with chopsticks.

[An] atmospheric, hypnotic digital video wonder.