Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent but underrated film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A different way of telling a story

From the opening scene, one gets a brick in the face: this film is loaded with supernatural nonsense. A stuffed rabbit floats through the air, seemingly of its own accord; the rabbit can proceed effortlessly through solid walls, plural.Rin, Ken, Yuki, Miyu, and Motoki were at an amusement park when they were young, in particular in a mostly dark labyrinth. Something bad happened there. In the present, Rin is blind, Yuki is presumed dead. However, Yuki shows up at Rin's door. Rin calls Ken and Motoki. It does seem to be Yuki; she claims she's been in a hospital for all these years. They find Yuki's younger sister Miyu at the old family home. While the group was talking, Yuki bolts up to her old room; there they see the stuffed rabbit that was with them in the labyrinth. The rabbit shows a few supernatural signs, and Yuki bolts out again, this time to fall down the stairs. The group takes Yuki to the hospital.Sigh. Twenty minutes in.The rest of the film is about getting to a doctor; well, at least at first. The teenagers confront all sorts of obstacles after they arrive at the hospital. Where are the nurses? Where are the doctors? Where are the emergency staff, and so on? Then Yuki runs away and they cannot find her. What trauma dramas do they need to resolve before they leave this shared nightmare?That is what the last 68 of 88 minutes is about. Layer upon layer upon layer of hallucinatory experiences are dumped on the four teens.-----Scores------Cinematography: 0/10 In the second scene, the Blair Witch bovine scatology starts. Why the director chooses to go back and forth between trash and splendor (10% of the film is absolutely beautiful) in the visuals is not clear. The credits and subtitles all look fine and professional. It is unfortunate that they have to be conjoined to the wretched camera work. Sound: 10/10 As good as the visuals are bad; creepy and atmospheric.Acting: 8/10 Reasonably good.Screenplay: 6/10 This is a 10 minute short. Why drag it out to 88 minutes? The endless repeated flashbacks do not add anything except irritation.Special Effects: 8/10 This is a mixed bag, but more often than not, the SFX look fine.

For a Japanese horror movie, then "Shock Labyrinth 3D" failed to live up to many of the other Japanese horror movies on the market, in the sense that it wasn't really scary and making you look over your shoulder every five minutes or so - that is, if you are expecting this movie to follow the 'standard formula' of a Japanese ghost movie.That being said, then don't get me wrong. Even though this movie is not up to par with other Japanese horror movies in the same genre, then "Shock Labyrinth 3D" delivers anyway, and it plays well on having an interesting story that keep evolving and adding new aspects and angles to the same story all throughout the course of the entire movie. And that is what made "Shock Labyrinth 3D" work out so well.Not forgetting to mention that they actually managed to pull off the 3D effects quite nicely. Of course it is nowhere near the spectacular effects of the 3D version of "Avatar", but still "Shock Labyrinth 3D" managed to deliver to nice effects and work the psyche just the right amount to actually creep under your skin.I will not venture into reviewing the story, as this movie has the type of story that needs to be seen to be enjoyed in all its fullness. And if you enjoy Japanese movies, horror movies that is, they you should definitely check out "Shock Labyrinth 3D" as it brings something new and interesting to the horror scene. This is more of a psychological thriller with just a hint of horror, than it is actually a horror movie, because it plays so heavily on the psyche.The story takes place in a run down building which is actually quite disturbing and confusing in itself, in its construction layout and with all the weird stuff that is placed inside it. Plus, the way they made use of the effects and visuals really helped to bring the mood of the setting to live in a great way. There were so many nice details in almost every scene.As for the people cast for the movie, then I can't really claim to remember having seen any of them in other movies, at least not right on the top of my head. And people did good jobs with their roles, especially Misako Renbutsu (playing Yuki) and Erina Mizuno (playing Myiu), their performance was quite memorable and really played out with their hearts poured into their characters.The musical score for the movie worked out well enough too, to help add to the mood of the movie. It was just subtle enough to be there in the background, and put in the front when something bizarre was taking place.If you have the chance to watch the 3D version of "Shock Labyrinth 3D", go for it, don't settle for the regular 2D version, because this was meant to be enjoyed in 3D. I warmly recommend "Shock Labyrinth 3D" to anyone who is looking for a new breath of air to the Japanese horror scene.

There are many things amiss in 'Shock Labyrinth'. It is a supernatural revenge story with a time travel paradox twist but it collapses inwardly on its convoluted execution until any sense of mood is completely destroyed. Plot-wise it has potential: something dreadful happens to a group of children when they enter a haunted house attraction after closing hours. Ten years later the girl who went missing returns, causing them all to face the past.An interesting premise only makes it more painful when the movie does not live up to it. Extremely redundant repetitions make 'Shock Labyrinth' extremely predictable yet at the same time rather random. Images that are supposed to be disturbing are overused to the point of becoming silly, such as the floating bunny plush toy. Dummies staggering about add insult to injury since they do not even fit into the narrative and only seem to be there for the sake of filling movie time.As far as acting goes, the child actors go very well and capture how a combination few childish mistakes can end in tragedy but the adult cast is for the most part hopeless. The one who does hold her water just so happens to disappear from the screen all too soon. There is much walking about in ill lit corridors and even if the deliberately cheesy set is unsettling at first it becomes tiresome all too soon. Good horror manages to increase the tension with each repetition but bad horror cannot help but flounder when employing such a tactic.And 'Shock Labyrinth' is a bad horror movie. After skipping about madly as if in search of closure the plot settles for the never missing twist. It is disappointing that a director that has already shown how he can inject innovation into J-horror should produce such a dispirited movie.

Complete utter disaster of a film. Nothing works: 3D effects are terrible and gimmicky, the plot is all over the place (above all, boring), and the adult actors seem to be sleep walking through the entire movie. I wish Takashi had stuck with the children and the far more compelling story. After establishing the basic premise of the story, it gets stuck in a pattern of repeating the same things over and over again with a twist here and there until the finale. There were just too many actors and not enough story to make it feature length film. The "horror" scenes are either unintentionally humorous or just boring. Ironically for a director known to build tension and atmosphere in his movies, the creepiness of the famous haunted hospital is completely lost.