New Group
The brief
Yûta Shimotsu turns the absurd horror of social conformity into literal body horror as an entire Japanese town gets swept up in increasingly bizarre human pyramid formations. Anna Yamada anchors the madness with a quietly desperate performance as a girl who can't bring herself to resist until resistance becomes a matter of survival. The film builds its dread through escalating crowd choreography that feels both ridiculous and genuinely unsettling, like if Junji Ito adapted a high school sociology textbook. Perfect for fans of Japanese weirdness like Hausu or The Wailing, or anyone who found Midsommar's cult dynamics more terrifying than its gore.
The verdict
If you crave bizarre Japanese horror that blends social satire with genuinely creepy body horror, this darkly absurd tale of conformity gone mad delivers exactly the kind of unhinged weirdness that makes films like Hausu unforgettable. If you prefer straightforward scares or can't handle deliberately ridiculous premises escalating into legitimate terror, the film's commitment to its absurd human pyramid concept will likely feel more silly than scary.
Watch with
- 👤 Solo viewing for maximum psychological impact
- 👥 Friends who appreciate Japanese weirdness
- ⚠️ Skip if you have crowd phobias
Heads up
- Escalating body horror and crowd violence (moderate)
- Intense social pressure and conformity themes (frequent)
- Disturbing human pyramid formations (moderate)
Credits
- Director
- Yûta Shimotsu
- Cast
- Anna Yamada, Yuzu Aoki, Pierre Taki
Official synopsis
Ai is a high school girl who feels suffocated by social pressure, but finds it hard to fight going with the flow. One day, the people in her school inexplicably start to form a human pyramid. The principal and other teachers start to act weird and encourage taking part in it, and the various gymnastic formations start to spread and take over the whole town. Eventually only Ai and Yuu, a transfer student who finds it hard to fit in, are left to rebel against the conformity madness.
The Double
Make a night of it
Pair this with Last Night in Soho (2021)
Both feature young women trapped by sinister social forces beyond control.
Total runtime: 1h 22m + 1h 57m = 3h 19m
