An homage of asian horror films

Saw it last night. Not too bad but very inconsistent. Its a hybrid of a classic american ghost story and asian horror films.

To be honest, the story has been done to death: a group of friends pull a prank on another friend, friend returns from the grave to seek revenge. Common stuff. The film has its roots in american teenage horror films but it also pays homage to classic asian horror films. The Ghost Girl will remind you a lot of Kayako from the Grudge. Her first kill even takes place in the water ala. Ringu and Dark Water. Check out the trailer and you'll even hear her making those odd croaking sounds Kayako does.

Despite all that, I wouldn't consider the movie a rip-off. I'd prefer something like this over a trashy american remake any day. I just don't know why american directors don't just make movies like their asian contemporaries anyway instead of remaking them.

The problem here is the movie suddenly takes a graphic, bloody turn after the second victim is claimed. Asian horror films are usually light on blood and heavy on atmosphere and psychological scares. Forget Me Not becomes a regular american horror movie with a asian-influenced ghost chasing around its victims. After a while, the Ghost Girl might as well have been a killer in a mask. If the movie had stuck to subtle scare tactics and relented on the gore, it could have been something more memorable.