Over a two-decade career, Takashi Shimizu has rarely strayed from the horror genre that made his reputation, beginning with the “Ju-on” series about deadly ghosts in a Tokyo suburban house.
In his latest, “Suicide Forest Village,” he shows he still knows the tricks of the trade, though the psychological depths and signature style found in the work of fellow master of horror Kiyoshi Kurosawa elude him. Also, Shimizu has never come up with another iconic character like the creepy, crawly Kayako from “Ju-on.”
The sinister, death-dealing wooden box that plays a central role in “Suicide Forest Village” is disturbing enough, at least initially, but this and the film’s other jack-in-the-box scares do not, like Kayako, linger in the imagination.