Two movies live within Tomojiro Amano’s horror movie, This Man, an Official Selection of the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival. One film is a grim treatise on grief and loss. The other is a possession film featuring sorcerers and vegetable peelers.
Perhaps that’s an oversimplification.
This Man earns its place in the top tier of urban legend movies, where an old myth or creepypasta turns out to be real and dangerous. In this case, the link between a mysterious sequence of gruesome deaths is This Man, a frightening being who appears in the dreams of the victims. Extremely online viewers will recognize the face from threads on various social media platforms. More David Berkowitz than Freddy Kreuger, This Man is able to not only cause deaths, but take over the bodies of others to carry out his wicked will.
Despite news reports about the rising death toll caused by the dreams involving This Man, Hana (Arisa Deguchi) and Yoshio (Minehiro Kinomoto) aren’t too concerned. They have interesting careers and a daughter to raise. It isn’t until people close to them start violently leaving this physical plane that the couple begins to believe. When Hana dreams about This Man, the two seek aggressive spiritual assistance from a disenfranchised sorcerer.
It’s true. That sorcerer got kicked out of the union. Who knew such a thing existed?
There’s nothing fancy about This Man. Amano keeps the camerawork hand-held, allowing for an intimate feel between the performers. More time is spent developing the characters than in most horror movies. As the main couple, Deguchi and Kinomoto seem genuinely nice. They could be your friends. You would wave at them in the supermarket and not try to hide in the frozen food aisle. When things go off the rails, which they do, you feel bad for them. You feel terrible for everyone, especially those who survive.
This Man strikes an uneasy balance between dramatic sensitivity and slaughtering as many people as possible. Mourning seems to take up as much screen time as murdering. Despite the supernatural elements of This Man, the movie is grounded in the fragility of humanity. Amano has a tentative grip on our vulnerability. Our desires. Our fears. How we react when events beyond our control threaten those things.
There are some darkly humorous moments in the movie. Scenes featuring the sorcerers are so intense, they evoke nervous laughter. On the case are two investigators who have no idea what is happening. Their ineptitude is amusing but endearing. Even in the face of immutable evil, something is bound to be funny.
As a horror movie, This Man works on multiple levels. There’s the ever-looming Spooky Dream Guy with his monobrow and filthy grinning face. Beyond that is the maw of existential terror. What do you do when the unthinkable happens? What does anyone do?
Scary and thought-provoking, This Man uses a familiar horror theme to reveal some of the great question marks at the core of human existence. How come? Why me? What now? The answers This Man provides may not match your own.
This Man received its International Premiere at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal on July 25, 2024.
