Shock Labyrinth isn't a good movie. It doesn't get more blunt than that. Story, script, casting, performances, visual effects... director Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On, The Grudge, Marebito) gets very little right, and even less when it comes to staging and shooting the maze of horrors screenwriter Daisuke Hosaka plumbed the depths of his nightmares to dream up. It has the makings of a good movie, sure. It even twists and lurches in a few unexpected, mildly unsettling directions. But it never lives up to Shimizu's aspirations or Hosaka's ambitious nonlinear narrative, doesn't deliver a remotely frightening or effective 3D experience, and reduces one of the largest, goriest haunted houses in the world -- the Haunted Hospital attraction at the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park in Japan -- to a series of paper-thin scares ripped out of a lesser entry in the Silent Hill videogame franchise.
When a group of teenagers reunite with an old friend they thought had died years earlier, they find themselves at the mercy of a vengeful spirit in the bowels of a hellish hospital from which there doesn't seem to be any escape. On the surface, it's just that simple. A J-horror ghost story that doesn't distinguish itself from every other J-horror ghost story. Once Shock Labyrinth hits its stride, though, more sinister forces, motives and trickery become apparent. The tortured teens didn't just lose their friend when they were children; they apparently were responsible for her death. Moreover, her return from the grave hasn't just trapped her soul on Earth but freed it from the shackles of time; she not only exerts control on the present, she slithers into the past as well. The line between cause and effect is blurred, the difference between guilt and innocence is rendered irrelevant, and blood is demanded for blood.
Which is all well and good, at least on paper. It doesn't take long for Shock Labyrinth to shudder off the rails, and that's not even taking the god-awful dialogue or animatronic actors into account, both of which make the film's first act the hideous, groan-inducing abomination that it is. Raindrops, shimmering in all their mediocre CG glory, hang in midair, signaling something foul is afoot. A blind girl "sees" her surroundings as if she were, I don't know, Daredevil I guess. A bunny backpack, tattered and sporting a shiny tiara, floats through the halls of the hospital, following the teens into the depths of their labyrinthine doom. A young boy's mother dies for no conceivable reason. Each child plays a part in their playmate's demise... also for no conceivable reason. Even the final twist -- or twists as it turns out -- really doesn't make that much sense, nor does it explain how a ghost, however vindictive, is given reigns to the past, present and future. (Spoiler alert: if, that is, the hospital's evil can even be called a ghost, considering the big reveal that comes in the closing scenes.) Everything is slapped together with little rhyme or reason, making Shimizu's maze an unnecessarily confounding labyrinth of genre conventions, cheap jolts and unintentionally laughable frights.
When Shimizu first began toying with the notion of past and present, I felt a brief and welcome glimmer of hope; an intense and sudden optimism that promised to erase the memory of everything that had come before if Shock Labyrinth would only right its course. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. Any hope or promise was snuffed out the minute the young cast would open their mouths, whenever that damnable floppy eared backpack would float through yet another hospital wall, and every time Yuki's Grudge-y spirit would exact the next stage of her brutal but cheesy floor-crawling, hair-splitting, mannequin-mangling vengeance. From start to finish, I found myself asking where are the chills? Where are the spine-tingling, stomach-turning shocks? The best J-horror movies leave fans desperate for a respite; racing to get out of the dark theater or turn on the lights the moment the credits roll. Shock Labyrinth will leave horror junkies desperate for a respite as well; albeit one only the stop button can provide. There are shades of greatness to be found, I'll admit. But nothing that saves the film from its gristly fate.
Shock Labyrinth isn't much to look at either, in 2D or 3D. While Well Go's 1080p/MVC-encoded video presentation is decent, and while many of its issues trace back to the film's photography, source, and low-rent visual effects, the resulting image is flat, noisy, inconsistent and haunted by things that go bump in the Blu-ray night. What sorts of things? Compression anomalies aren't entirely uncommon, mosquito noise and artifacts appear throughout, terribly pixelated ghosts and gnarled CG take their toll, hazy shots curse the otherwise presentable low-budget production, and muted blacks, poorly delineated shadows, crush and minor ringing undermine the integrity of Shimizu's efforts. Worse still, the 3D presentation is uneven and underwhelming. Depth is hit or miss, dimensionality is disappointing, and very few shots lend themselves to the 3D experience. (The English subtitles throw a handful of fits of their own too, adding insult to injury.) Thankfully, it isn't a complete loss. The Blu-ray encode looks considerably better than its DVD counterpart, and edge definition and overall detail is more refined and revealing. Colors are stronger and more natural as well, even though skintones are plagued by slight (perhaps even intentional) saturation oddities. Ultimately, Shock Labyrinth's 2D and 3D presentations are riddled with problems -- some unavoidable, some inherited, all unmistakable -- but it could be much, much worse.
Shock Labyrinth's Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is, without a doubt, the highlight of the disc, but it isn't the be-all, end-all sonic frightfest it could be. Dialogue isn't exactly what I'd call reliable or perfectly prioritized, but the majority of the lines are clean and clear, and rarely get buried in the mix, even when all hell breaks loose. The rear speakers create a real sense of atmosphere, particularly when the teens wander the depths of the hellish hospital, and the resulting soundfield is, at times, far creepier than the film it accompanies. Yes, directional effects are a tad overdone. Yes, pans are a touch too jarring to earn a complete pass. But there's just enough hair-raising moments and chilling acoustic flourishes to make up for it. The LFE channel makes its power and presence known too, albeit to a far lesser degree. When it engages, it commands authority. When it doesn't, the mix may as well be attached to a 5.0 track. That said, the film's sound design is the real villain in almost every case, and just about every misstep and misfire should be laid at its feet.
Unfortunately, Shock Labyrinth also doesn't have much to offer in the way of special features other than a half hour of interviews, a ten-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, and an all-too-brief press conference. Moreover, while each subtitled extra is presented in HD, it may as well be in SD, so no help there.
The only thing shocking about Shock Labyrinth is that it's as bad as it is. There's a solid, dare I say inventive film lurking in its shadows, but it's ruined by laughable dialogue, a dry first act and muddled third, cringe-inducing performances, and subpar visual effects (among other flawed fundamentals). I'm not big on American remakes, but a talented filmmaker, if given the proper budget, could work wonders. Shock Labyrinth's 3D Blu-ray release is better, but only just. Its video transfer is problematic, its 3D presentation isn't worth the price of admission, its DTS-HD Master Audio tracks are the high point of the disc, and its slim selection of special features aren't very special at all. Rent this one if you must, but I'd suggest spending your money on meaner, meatier fare.
In May, Well Go USA Home Entertainment will bring The Shock Labyrinth 3D to Blu-ray. Directed by Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge), this horror thriller follows a group of friends as they try to escape a terrifying labyrinth. The Shock Labyrinth 3D streets on May ...
