Shock Labyrinth 3D review (DVD) ★

Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Yuya Yagira, Ai Maeda,
Suzuki Matsuo, Ryo Katsuji, Shoichiro Masumoto, Misako Renbutsu, Erina Mizuno | Written by Daisuke Hosaka
UK Certification 15 | UK RRP £14.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 93 minutes | Directed by Takashi Shimizu

Film-maker Takashi Shimizu was catapulted to international fame when Ju-on was released theatrically in 2002. Based on his two highly successful made-for-television films from a couple of years previous, Ju-on, a chilling supernatural tale steeped in mystery, was remade by Shimizu himself in the US as The Grudge two years later and with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the starring role. Since Shimizu took J-horror to Hollywood, he has kicked off an unfortunate trend of Western remakes of Japanese genre movies good and bad, and even returned to his homeland to helm the country's first ever live-action horror film shot in 3D with Shock Labyrinth. But does this curious story of death and dread have the writer-director packing another cinematic punch?

The short answer is no. Shimizu's 3D venture is an abstruse affair that does little in the way of delivering shocks and instead feels like some kind of ugly crossover between Western and Japanese horror, with an unfortunate abundance of weak teenage characters who serve only to walk around asking obvious questions with frightened looks on their faces. It's a shame they don't have three dimensions.

During a trip to a theme park, a small group of kids enter The Shock Labyrinth, a walk-through haunted house, during a period of closure. Inside the attraction and amidst the darkness and suitably gory mannequins, one of the children, Yuki, suddenly disappears without a trace. That is until a decade later when she mysteriously reappears on the doorstep of one of her old friends. Quickly reunited with her group, she soon finds herself in need of medical attention after a fall down a flight of stairs. Having taken her to the nearest hospital, her friends cannot find another soul in the building and find themselves trapped in a familiar setting that forces them to relive the day Yuki disappeared, and from a variety of brooding perspectives. Plunged into a scenario that's every bit as disturbing as it is perplexing, they desperately search for a way out of the hospital as more and more light is shed on the menacing truth behind Yuki's vanishing.

While the film retains the flare of its director with a number of impressive visuals and solid camerawork, the script is its downfall. Perhaps it would have been a different story had Shimizu written it, but Hosaka's literature is appalling. The 3D effect is also poorly handled and is its usual gimmicky self, so you're best off reaching for the 2D disc (yes, this release thankfully comes with both versions). It makes you wonder whether Shimizu just took the money and ran for this production, or was just that infatuated with making history as the director behind Japan's inaugural 3D horror, because I fail to see the appeal of such a wafer-thin story that abuses flashbacks and is puzzling to say the least, when the man himself has penned a movie in his past with such a coherent and gripping mystique. The mind boggles.

EXTRAS ??? Cast and crew interviews (with Takashi Shimizu, Yuya Yagira, Ryo Katsuji, Ai Maeda, Erina Mizuno and Misako Renbutsu); behind the scenes features: The Secret of the Stereoscopic Camera, and the self-explanatory The haunted house and scary dummies and Cast and Crew fooling around and shooting last scenes [sic]; a look at the Venice Film Festival premiere with director Takashi Shimizu; press conference and opening day footage; and the trailer. All these special features are on the 2D disc, while the 3D version contains the trailer alone, so if you're aiming to watch the film in the third dimension and you're interested in the extras – especially since it's a decent package – don't forget to switch discs.