Horror movies don¡¯t have to make sense to be scary. When a ghost¡¯s hand shoots up from murky bath water to grab the heroine¡¯s wrist, your heart leaps even though a spook with a vise-like grip is impossible in reality.
Yuta Shimotsu¡¯s first feature, ironically titled ¡°Best Wishes to All,¡± delivers more than a jump scare or two. Based on a prize-winning short film and produced by horror maestro Takashi Shimizu, it is a plunge into a nightmarish world in which the bizarre and disturbing are accepted with a smile as ordinary and unavoidable.
While Shimotsu can create shocks from a gesture or glance without showy effects, he can¡¯t quite fill the gaping holes in Rumi Kakuta¡¯s script. The result is a film that strains to say something true about human nature, but its metaphorical reach exceeds its narrative grasp.
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