Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? I know what you’re thinking: Halloween is over — stop watching horror movies! Bear with me, because this one is a little different. It’s a ghost story that isn’t exactly a ghost story. But it has ghosts, and a professional ghostbuster. Are you confused? Good.
“Never After Dark” is a Japanese-language supernatural horror film written and directed by Dave Boyle. For many movie buffs, any mention of J-Horror usually evokes mental images of inescapable long-haired vengeful spirits scampering disjointedly down impossibly long, dark corridors or climbing out of spooky wells. Japanese horror also frequently employs themes of generational trauma, personal guilt, hopelessness, and predestination.
Boyle partnered with Kento Kaku on this project. The two worked together on the Netflix series “House of Ninjas.” For this film, Boyle wrote the screenplay, consulting with Kaku to ensure the Japanese dialogue felt genuine and grounded. The result is a restrained, moody paranormal drama that cleverly lulls the viewer into a false sense of security before violently yanking the tatami mat out from under them. Released on digital platforms on Oct. 27 through Magnolia Pictures, “Never After Dark” creates its own metaphysical mythos to deliver an intelligent ghost story that unexpectedly metamorphoses into something more gruesome and visceral.
The story follows Airi (Moeka Hoshi), a traveling medium, seemingly drifting from one assignment to the next. Property owners hire her to exorcise restless spirits haunting homes and businesses, and Airi uses her special abilities to guide these ghosts out of the world of the living. In addition to being able to see and hear spirits, Airi exhibits psychometry: She can perceive histories or impressions by coming into contact with physical objects linked to a person or spirit. When she is ready to confront a spirit, she employs a specific candle-and-mirror ritual to gain access to the spirit world using a technique akin to astral projection.
As you may have guessed from the film’s title, she will only attempt to make direct contact with a spirit during the daytime — and never after dark.
In the opening scenes, the viewer also meets Miku (Kurumi Inagaki), Airi’s sister, who assists her in her occupation. It quickly becomes evident that Miku is a ghost. Some of the details of her death are eventually revealed, providing crucial backstory for how Airi arrived at this point in her life.
Airi has been commissioned to deal with a grotesque apparition infesting an isolated country house that was previously a bed-and-breakfast. Teiko (Tae Kimura), the homeowner, is frightened by the haunting but also visibly fascinated by Airi’s extrasensory ability to interact with the spirit world. Her son Gunji (Kaku) is palpably skeptical and obviously worried that Airi is a grifter or a thief. Airi explains that she must do her work in private and sends Teiko and Gunji to a hotel, but both return to the house at various times: Taiko implores Airi to let her witness the process while Gunji softens his opposition, possibly driven by his own loneliness.
For roughly half the film, “Never After Dark” seems as though it’s following a predictable path, moving slowly but surely toward an inevitable confrontation with the restless spirit. The entity is stuck in a loop, always following the same path, arriving in the same room, and scratching at a cabinet as if trying to find something he has lost. Miku’s growing apprehension suggests trouble ahead, but the viewer still feels confident that Airi, with her experience and capabilities, will ultimately prevail. Boyle has convinced us that while this property may be creepy and its resident supernatural entity — known as “The Gaping Mouth Man” (Mutsuo Yoshioka) — may be terrifying to behold, there is no quantifiable danger.
And then Boyle reveals that the thing haunting the house is not what it seems. Airi, who had demonstrated confidence and poise, is suddenly panicking. She soon finds herself being hunted by an unpredictable, malevolent force. Plot twists don’t always work, but the one in “Never After Dark” blindsides the viewer.
Hoshi’s performance makes all this work. Her Airi is as tragic as any forlorn spirit stuck in an endless loop. Her past haunts her, but she continues to do the work she is uniquely destined and suited to do. In his role, Yoshioka is chilling and intimidating.
In terms of its theme, “Never After Dark” is akin to films in “The Conjuring” franchise. Its tone, however, is rooted in the traditional Japanese horror attributes, from slow-burning tension and atmospheric dread to intense sorrow and cursed technology. The plot also involves a kind of subverted chronology, hinted at in an early scene when a creepy grandfather clock at the top of a staircase runs backwards. The owner has already warned Airi that it only tells time when it feels like it.
“I’ve always been fascinated by mediums, seers, and spiritualists,” Boyle explains in his director’s statement. “I love the moment in any ghost story when things get rough, and it’s time to call in an expert. The seed of ‘Never After Dark’ began with a desire to tell a story about a professional, following step-by-step in procedural detail how they get rid of a pesky spirit. Only to have the rug pulled out from under them.”
For fans of ghost stories and J-Horror, “Never After Dark” is a captivating nightmare, simultaneously elegant and ghastly. It’s never going exactly where you think it is, and it’s likely to linger with you long after the closing credits.
Lee Clark Zumpe is entertainment editor at Tampa Bay Newspapers, a Tomatometer-Approved Critic, and an author of short fiction. He can be reached by email at lzumpe@TBNweekly.com.