Never After Dark aka Nebâ Afutâ Dâku (Japan 2026: Dir Dave Boyle)

If his name doesn't sound particularly Japanese, well you'd be right: but Dave Boyle, the American writer/director of Never After Dark, studied Japanese at university and has a history of incorporating Japanese themes (and cast members) into his projects.

So it's perhaps not surprising that his latest, a first foray into the realms of the supernatural, feels entirely authentic in atmosphere. But upfront it's worth mentioning that Boyle is not here to reproduce the usual elements of J-horror; Never After Dark is for the most part a slow, meditative piece, rather than a fright flick per se.

Airi (Moeka Hoshi) is, when we first meet her, driving to the location of her latest job. In the back seat is a young girl (Karumi Inagaki), seen reflected in the rear view mirror. The first impression is that this is either a mother/daughter setup or a standard older/younger sibling relationship. It's the latter but with one exception; the young girl is dead and can be only be seen by her sibling, who is a psychic for hire (the bittersweetness of this is compounded by Airi originally being the younger sister).

The employer in question is the welcoming but frightened Teiko (Tae Kimura) and her sceptical son Gunji (Kento Kaku). The pair have bought a huge house, a former hotel in the middle of nowhere, with a view to renovating it. But any plans have been halted because Teiko is being constantly haunted by the spirit of an unnamed man (Mutsuo Yoshioka); Airi has been employed to lay the ghost or, in her sister's words, "help them become unstuck and go to the next world".

A condition of the job is that Airi works alone (although her sister is constantly on hand to offer advice and support); Teiko and Ginji decamp to a local hotel. But not for long; the pair constantly return to the house to assess progress, even though Airi assures them that the process is pretty boring to observe, one which she only carries out during the day (hence the film's title).

But we do at least understand Teiko's concerns when Airi witnesses the apparition, a gaunt man with a hideous injury to the lower half of his face. However, it's not just the spirit with whom the ghost layer has to contend; the whole house, with its clocks that run backwards and a hidden compartment containing a tin box full of teeth, seems weird. Airi and her recently departed spirit assistant must solve the mystery of the haunting - even if the source of it may be earthbound in nature - using old school rituals such as hair burning and even a Victorian phenakistoscope, in increasingly desperate attempts to exorcise the restless spirit.

As others have commented, the closest comparator for the unusual goings on in Never After Dark is Ti West's 2011 movie The Innkeepers. Both movies offer a slow burn spooky setup whose cast of odd characters is as disconcerting as the central supernatural theme. Boyle's movie is arguably too slow at times, despite a final revelatory reel, but Hoshi and Iangaki give us a likeable pair of ghost hunters, and Boyle's attention to detail and mood creates a sustained atmosphere of weirdness and, on more than one occasion, profound sadness.

Never After Dark is released on digital platforms from 2 November.

The Curse (Japan 2025: Dir Kenichi Ugana)

Ugana is fast developing a reputation for injecting new blood - pun very much intended - into J Horror's slightly tired reputation. and for his latest he has knowingly plundered the 'cursed technology' theme, which stretches back nearly 30 years to Hideo Nakata's Ringu.

Riko (Yukino Kaizu) works in a hair salon and, like millions of her generation, spends a large part of her social life on phone apps, specifically Instagram. In the apartment she shares with Airi (Mimi Shao) she expresses concern about recent posts from her friend Shufen (Shih-ting Lin), now living in Taiwan, which seem uncharacteristically angry. Airi suggests that Riko contacts her ex Jiahao (Yu Teng Yang), who remains in touch with Shufen. But he has some surprising news; the girl died six months previously, her corpse found on a beach.

Thinking that their friend's account must have been hacked, Airi contacts 'Shufen' and in return receives an odd video which shows a 'paper doll' (a paper cutout of a body with the photograph of the intended victim for a head) being mysteriously hammered to a bloody pulp; and the photograph is of Riko's flatmate.

This is the jumping off point for a movie that spends its first half hour setting itself up as a familiar - perhaps overfamiliar - story of a curse being transmitted through a modern medium; there's even a suggestion of the traditional long haired yurei phantom. But whereas the films of Nakata - and his ilk - offer a restrained if creepy version of the spook story, Ugana has already shown us a very Aster-like prologue in which a previous victim of the curse, screaming their lungs out while running along a street, ends up in contact with - and decapitated by - a passing truck; he's clearly not messing about.

So Riko journeys to Taiwan, a country perhaps more steeped in tradition than modern day Japan, and of course ends up on the wrong end of a 'paper doll' video. There's a lot of coughed up blood, some rather suspect CGI manifestations, dodgy exorcists and a denouement that suggests the director has something to say about phone culture and the ageing process. 

Despite some rather untidy plot elements and it being slightly all over the place, I enjoyed Ugana's rug pull version of a familiar story; I'm guessing he was having a lot of fun delivering a movie whose real sense of humour only becomes apparent in its closing scenes, a cautionary tale not afraid of its over the topness.

The Curse is available to stream from 13 July.