‘Best Wishes to All' Proves J-Horror Can Still Find New Ways to Freak You Out
New Shudder release Best Wishes to All begins with a nightmare, and that sets the tone for everything that follows.
A nursing student, never given a name and played by the instantly sympathetic Kotone Furukawa, dreams she's a child again visiting her grandparents—and wakes up screaming after spotting something deeply alarming beyond a cracked-open door. We soon realize this was really more of a flashback, in anticipation of what seems to be her first trip to their rural home since that happened.
And she's going alone. 'By myself?' she murmurs in dismay to her parents when they call to tell her they'll be delayed in joining her. She's reluctant, but she leaves her Tokyo apartment and heads to the train, where an elderly woman she helps cross the street layers in some thematic heft early in act one: 'I'm sorry that young people are sacrificed for old folks like me.'
Our protagonist shakes the odd encounter off, but the weird vibes escalate even after what seems to be a perfectly pleasant family reunion… at least at first. It's odd being back in the sleepy village, where neighbors—especially a young man she hasn't seen in years—seem startled to see her stopping by from her current life in the big city. There's a sense of unease clinging to every frame, and director and co-writer Yûta Shimotsu carefully sprinkles warning signs in such a way that neither the nurse nor the audience can tell if this is just 'old people acting like old people' and 'eccentric small-town stuff,' or something far more distressing.
There's also the matter of that room from her nightmare, sealed behind the only locked door in the house.
Best Wishes to All has Takashi Shimizu among its producers, a name Japanese horror fans will instantly recognize. He created the Ju-On series, also known as The Grudge, and had such ownership of the franchise he even directed the American remake and its sequel. Along with The Ring, The Grudge was one of the breakout titles of the early 2000s J-horror craze, spawning terrors about cursed houses and wide-eyed ghosts with long black hair. His involvement in Best Wishes to All ties it into that tradition and also signals his support for the genre's 21st century evolution—and this release certainly proves there are still agonizing new ways to reveal ghastly truths lurking within an ostensibly peaceful setting.
Like many standout horror movies, Best Wishes to All roots its frights in social commentary, though American audiences may have to poke around after viewing to understand the finer details of the cultural context. However, it also contains a more universal message about generational conflicts, as well as traditions that remain stubbornly in place despite seeming wildly out of step with the times.
If this review reads as frustratingly vague regarding exactly what the nurse uncovers at grandma and grandpa's home—sorry, but Best Wishes to All is a movie best experienced with as little knowledge of its reveals as possible. It's not entering spoiler turf to note that a movie that came to mind while watching it was Jordan Peele's Us; there are no murderous doppelgangers here, but there's a similar exploration of an awful truth that's become completely entangled with the way the world operates.
And like the characters in Us, the nurse peels back a layer she can never put back in place. She's forced to come to terms not just with what she learns about her own family, but so many other families too, as well as the knowledge that everyone else already has full awareness of something she's been kept in the dark about. At one point, someone even jokingly asks her if she still believes in Santa Claus.
Best Wishes to All is decidedly bleak; instead of leaning into jump scares, it gets under your skin in more philosophical but no less dreadful ways. And it's packed with body horror too—a creepy extra flourish in a movie whose characters are fixated on asking each other if they're happy or not. They all say yes, but in a world like theirs, how can we believe them?
Best Wishes to All is streaming on Shudder.
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