This is an astonishingly inept movie. Plot lines appear out of nowhere, the characters are barely developed, and aside from one or two creepy visuals there is nothing to take away from this film. I loved Ringu and Dark Water, and apparently the director does as well, because this is basically a retread of both of those stories. I rented this thing on iTunes and I want my 4.99 back. Don't waste your money!

"The Complex" does deviate a bit from the standard Japanese horror genre with some pretty interesting twists, which was a very welcomed change of pace to the genre. However, the movie was nowhere near being scary, or I am just too seasoned and hardened to horror, and that resulted in a mediocre result.The story is about Asuka who moves into an older apartment complex, and soon after strange things start to happen which threaten to send Asuka's mind down a spiral of despair.Story-wise then "The Complex" was following a stereotypical 'how-to-make-a-horror-movie' blueprint, but it has some interesting twists and turn of events.The acting was good and helped the movie along quite well. Atsuko Maeda actually carried the lead quite well.The effects in "The Complex" were adequate, but not overly impressive or dazzling. But they did serve the purpose well enough.However, the lack of proper scares was the downfall that plummeted the movie into mediocrity. And as such, what could have been a unique movie ended up as a movie that you will Watch once and then never again.

I wonder if Asian horror will ever make a comeback? This movie wouldn't be the start of it, but it was rather enjoyable to watch. I haven't really enjoyed an Asian horror movie for... years it seems?The story is solid and rather intelligently written, but I feel like the delivery wasn't very effective. The acting was good, I guess it could be a bit awkward for the average Western person who is not accustomed to Japanese movies. Overall, it just feels like something is missing. I didn't feel a creepy atmosphere or anything. They could've taken the psychological thriller aspect and ran with it, with the addition of more creepy elements, but it sorta fails to deliver.I could see a Hollywood remake happening as I watched it, which in this case, could actually go very well.

There are good twists and bad twists. Good twists are the ones which enrich the story with surprise without demolishing it. Bad twists are of the "It was just a dream" sort and just annihilate everything that happened so far. "The Complex" by director Hideo Nakata, maker of the famous Ringu movies, appears to have both kinds of twists. Any way, it has too many.Which is unfortunate because "The Complex" has a lot things going for it. Like the talented Atsuko Maeda, who plays Asuka, a girl who just freshly moved with her family into an apartment complex. Much to Asuka's distress, she's disturbed at night by strange noises coming from the apartment next door. Not much to our surprise, things are getting worse.I liked the camera work and editing. Like, at the beginning, a few effective camera moves and cuts introduce us to the main characters and give us a good sense of location, how the apartments are placed and what the environment of the building is like. Acting is well throughout, too. As for the pace, it is a bit slow at the beginning, but that's fine since it allows us to become familiar with the characters. And the characters are ones that I could care for.Everything was going fine, so I don't understand why Nakata had to add twists, which at times felt forced and disrupted the mood. In the Ringu movies, Nakata established ambiguous characters without sudden changes. Maybe he thought "The Complex" would otherwise have been not exciting enough? Actually, I liked its calm parts.