Marebito a 2004 movie by Takashi Shimizu, the director of Ju-on; The Grudge. The screenplay was written by Chiaki Konaka.
A man obsessed with fear finds his way into a warped underground labyrinth world, is menaced by "Dero" ("Detrimental Robots"); and rescues a feral girl (who he names F) who turns out to be a vampire, who he keeps chained up in his apartment, and feeds by killing other people and draining their blood. But is that really happening? Do any of them actually exist? Is the girl real, perhaps his own daughter who he abuses and treats like an animal, while he kills people to feed his own delusion? Or has his detachment from reality actually enabled him to stumble into a real alternate, quasi supernatural world? The ending completely refuses to resolve any of these questions; leaving them up to the viewer to answer.
Tropes in this movie include:
- Abusive Parents. Maybe. Towards the end, it is implied that F is actually Masuoka's daughter. If this is true, then that means he's been keeping his own daughter chained up and cut off from the outside world.
- Beneath the Earth: Masuoka travels deep under the earth to discover the meaning of fear.
- Bloody Horror: There is a lot of focus on blood. F only drinks blood, and Masuoka kills two women and bottles up their blood for F to drink.
- Driven to Suicide: Masuoka's entire quest is inspired by witnessing a man stab himself to death at a subway station. His goal is to feel the safe fear that he saw in that man's eyes.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: F, the girl found deep underground.
- Fan Disservice: F is completely naked when Masuoka first discovers her. Given the fact that she's chained up in a cave, it is far from sexy.
- Hikikomori: Masuoka has a neighbour who seems to never leave her apartment, and whom he only briefly glimpses through her window.
- Friendless Background: Masuoka, being the shut-in weirdo that he is, has no friends.
- Inner Monologue: Masuoka narrates the movie in voiceover. There's probably more of his narration than there is actual dialogue.
- Kiss of the Vampire: Near the end, F drinks blood directly from Masuoka's bleeding mouth.
- The Men in Black: There's an ominous black-clad man who seems to be aware of F and wants Masuoka to take proper care of her.
- Mind Screw: And how. The vast majority of the film's events are flat out never explained, leaving it up to the viewer to decide.
- One-Letter Name: Masuoka calls the voiceless vampire girl "F."
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghost of Furoki, the man who committed suicide, shows up every now and then to chat with Masuoka.
- Our Vampires Are Different: F doesn't talk, eat, or drink, except when Masuoka lets her drink his blood.
- Sanity Slippage: Masuoka undergoes one throughout the entire film.
- Shout-Out:
- The deros are taken from the writings and conspiracy theories of Richard Sharpe Shaver. Masuoka has a whole conversation with Furoki's ghost about Shaver, the history of Hollow World theories, The Shangrila, and the like.
- When arriving at the underground mountain range, Masuoka refers to them as "the Mountains of Madness."
- Masuoka also compares F to Kaspar Hauser
, a German man who was allegedly also raised in total darkness.
- Snuff Film: Masuoka kills two women while recording with his camera.
- Supporting the Monster Loved One: Masuoka kills to provide blood for F to drink.
- Through the Eyes of Madness / Unreliable Narrator: Masuoka. It is never entirely clear whether what the audience sees is real or if Masuoka isn't just completely insane.
- Urban Fantasy: Ostensibly. All the supernatural happenings seem to be going on the fringes and back alleys of contemporary Tokyo.
- The Voiceless: F doesn't speak until the penultimate scene.
- Wild Child: F seems to have grown up without any human contact in the underground world.
