Re/Member movie review: a story that mixes the slasher genre with the supernatural

Re/Member is a Japanese movie that premiered on February 14 on the Netflix platform and is already a resounding success worldwide. Re/Member is a horror movie that has supernatural elements, gore scenes and time loops that will grab you from the beginning. The movie is inspired by the Japanese manga Karada Sagashi published in 2018, which in turn is an adaptation of the novel of the same name published in 2011.

Re/Member tells the story of Miko Onoyama, an 8-year-old girl who was dismembered by a man. Thirty years later, Asuka, a lonely student, begins to experience strange occurrences. She, along with five high school students are selected by a dead student who asks them to "find her body".

A tough challenge

Re/Member describes the experience of a group of high school students who get trapped in a deadly time loop. For no reason, at midnight they are transported to the school gymnasium, where a coffin lies and each of them is cruelly murdered by an evil being. However, they do not disappear after they die, as the day before their deaths repeats itself and, at midnight, they are placed back in the gymnasium in front of the sarcophagus, at the mercy of an evil entity called the Red Person. In this way the students realize that they are trapped in a time loop from which they can only be freed if they put together a puzzle with all the pieces of the body of a girl who was dismembered 30 years ago.

The body parts of the murdered girl are scattered all over the school, which complicates the task. In addition, the Red Person is after each of the students, complicating their lives in the cruelest possible way. They will escape this fatal fate only if they assemble the girl's body in the sarcophagus. The movie does not mention the rules but follows those explained in the original manga, making the journey more enigmatic and with a mysterious logic that is revealed intuitively as the story progresses.

As the hours pass, the group bonds to the point of forging a friendship, revealing secrets, sharing jokes and trying to protect each other so that they can all survive this sinister experience. They have to establish smart strategies to break the curse they unfortunately fell into. It is worth noting that the story is set on July 5th and is never changed.

A solid teen horror movie

Re/Member is a teen horror fiction with an endlessly repeating plot. The mission before the students is to work together for one goal and put their differences aside. Re/Member can be seen as a film that mixes elements of the films The Breakfast Club (1985) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). The first reference talks about a group that must unite to overcome an unpleasant situation and the second reference describes horror in its many dimensions. The film's music is extremely sweet, which makes a perfect contrast with the gore scenes.

The make-up used for the characters in the film is well crafted, as it contains a grotesque design that fits very well with this outlandish plot.

The final message of Re/Member points out that in order to achieve success, they must work as a team, solving the feeling of loneliness in their personal reality. This underlying message enables there to be a lot of teen drama to which supernatural elements can then be added.

Re/Member is an ideal film for fans of the horror genre and for those who have no prejudices when it comes to watching a movie. Re/Member marks the possible beginning of a saga, just look at the post-credits scene.