In America, low-budget B-horror movies are, for the most part, open invitations for people like me to write scathing reviews trying to be as hilariously witty as possible while describing just how bloody awful they are. In Japan, low-budget B-horror movies are, for the most part, innovative, unique and memorable. Take for example 2004's Cursed (not to be confused with the embarrassingly awful American werewolf film of the same name). This is one weird movie -- actually, surreal would be the word for it. The opening scene (the kind of jolting start we've come to expect from Japanese horror) may lead you to believe that there will be a good bit of blood involved in this one (and there is some), but this film is primarily all about atmosphere.

It's far too simplistic to say this is the story of a haunted mini-mart. This little store is so bizarre that even Ahpu from The Simpsons would refuse to work here. It's nothing obvious (well, not to most people, anyway), but the negative vibes this place puts out makes for quite an oppressive atmosphere, one that everyone who spends any time there can't help but feel (although, in some cases not for very long). The owners are beyond strange. I would call them robotic, but robots actually seem more human than this husband and wife. They spend almost all of their time sitting in the back of the store, watching security camera footage of their part-time workers, convinced that at least one of them is pilfering money from the cash drawer. They are no help at all to poor Ryoko (Kyoko Akiba), the representative of a large chain who comes to help inventory and pave the way for the store's transition to new management.

Thankfully, we do have one ray of sunshine in this disturbingly dark atmosphere, and that is part-time worker Nao (Hiroko Sato) -- but she is increasingly disturbed by the goings-on there. Only she and Ryoko are sensitive enough to see what others cannot see. I really like Sato and hope to see more of her in the future.

Cursed serves up a virtual buffet of creeps and scares, as those having shopped at the mini-mart are stalked and attacked by a number of different entities, while Nao and the night clerk Komori (Takaaki Iwao) see and experience some pretty nasty things themselves. I won't describe any of those things here, but trust me -- these folks have more to worry about than some girl with stringy wet hair hanging down her face crawling out of a television set.

I'm really not sure how to explain Cursed, apart from calling it a unique cinematic experience. Its undeniable weirdness means some viewers will hate it, simply because they won't "get" the slow-moving story. I personally don't understand everything about the film after just one viewing (there are lots of strange little details scattered throughout, such as the amounts of different purchases, that may or may not mean something important to the story), but I found it mesmerizing from start to finish. I don't care what several film critics have to say -- in my opinion, first-time director Yoshihiro Hoshino definitely knows what he's doing.

The original Japanese title for this film is Cho' kowai hanashi A: yami no karasu. It is part A of the Cho' kowai hanashi (Extremely Scary Stories) series of five films by five different directors, with yami no karasu meaning Dark Crow. Personally, I think Extremely Scary Stories: Dark Crow is a much better English title for this film than Cursed, but I guess some guy in a suit somewhere decided otherwise. Whatever you call it, the film is the equivalent of an urban legend story based on the short fiction of the increasingly influential Hirayama Yumeaki. It's a classic example of yet more innovation in the horror film genre by the Japanese, and I'm pretty much loving every minute of it.