Reincarnation is a 2005 J-Horror film directed by Takashi Shimizu and written by Takashi Shimizu and Masaki Adachi. Preceded by Infection and Premonition Reincarnation is the third film in producer Takashige Ichise‘s six part J-Horror Theater series.This film is often considered as to be inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror hit “The Shining”.
Reincarnation premiered at the 18th Tokyo International Film Festival on October 27th, 2005. It was theatrically released in the U.S. as one of the eight films in the nationwide film festival Horrorfest, which ran November 17th through 21st, 2006.
Synopsis
35 years ago, a series of terrible murders took place in a tourist hotel. A college professor had apparently gone mad and, as part of his wish to understand reincarnation, filmed himself killing 11 of the hotel guests and employees, as well as his own children, to finally commit suicide. Although since then, footage of the murders has disappeared.
In the present day, horror movie director Matsumura decides to make a movie about the massacre. As the date of the shoot draws near, Nagisa Sugiura, the actress who is set to star as the professor’s daughter, is haunted by the ghosts of the victims. She begins to hallucinate and is plagued by nightmares of the killings. However, Nagisa is not the only person who is seeing these visions.
She begins to believe herself to be the reincarnation of the professor’s little daughter, until she goes to the cubby where the little girl was slain and finds someone else there. When she sees the real reincarnation of the little girl, other victims are drawn back to the places where they died. Nagisa realizes she is not the reincarnation of a victim: instead, she was the homicidal professor.
The film ends with Nagisa in a mental hospital, bound in a full-body wrap and haunted by the souls of her past incarnation’s children. Her crazed smile is oddly triumphant.
