Horror movies tend to be most chilling when they take a seemingly normal setting and then violate it. Films that already start deep in the uncanny valley have to work much harder to unsettle their audience.
That¡¯s an issue for ¡°New Religion,¡± Keishi Kondo¡¯s confidently executed but curiously underwhelming debut feature. It takes place in a world that¡¯s been knocked off its axis. Characters speak to each other in affectless tones like they¡¯ve been hypnotized. Scenes are bathed in intense color schemes borrowed from Nicolas Winding Refn, accompanied by a near-constant pedal drone of dread. And that¡¯s before things start getting weird.
Maybe this is all a projection of the film¡¯s traumatized protagonist, Miyabi (Kaho Seto), whose young daughter takes a fatal tumble off the balcony of their apartment in the opening scene. Several years later, Miyabi is working as a call girl and still living in the same home, though she now shares it with an unnamed, music producer boyfriend (Ryuseigun Saionji, from madcap electronic outfit BBBBBBB).
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