The Gutter’s own Carol Borden has some thoughts on Kenichi Ugana’s The Curse (Taiwan / Japan, 2025), now screening at Fantastic Fest 2025!

Kenichi Ugana’s The Curse has the punk sensibility—down to its scratchy opening title card that looks like a punk zine cover—the gleeful gore, the dark comedy, and the sympathy for monsters and outsiders I enjoyed in Ugana’s Visitors: The Complete Edition (Japan, 2024). The Curse even has an awkward hosting scene that both entertained and disgusted me as in Visitors. And while I am tremendously fond of Visitors, its DIY sensibility, and its homages to Troma and early Sam Raimi, The Curse is a more accomplished film and if there is some digital blood, there’s still quality gnarly practical effects.

But where Visitors leaned more towards comedy and science fiction, The Curse leans into horror. It’s a grisly satire about social media. I have generally not enjoyed horror movies concerning social media, but I liked The Curse. And I think part of it is that the film uses a traditional means expressing one’s rage on other people—a curse, but a particular Taiwanese form of curse. In The Curse, as online, attention doesn’t always come in the form you want and can bleed into real life in the worst ways, which you already know, but there is a devil in the social media horror movie this time.

Read more of Carol’s initial thoughts at Monstrous Industry!