Over the last decade, Japanese horror films have enjoyed a level of international success not unlike the Italian horror scene of the 1970s and '80s. The cult popularity of films like Ringu and Ju-On would soon result in franchises and domestic remakes (which have likewise turned into franchises of their own). However, with any successful movement comes cheap imitations and knockoffs, and the "J-Horror" scene has seen its share of derivative material. Prayer Beads is a television horror anthology presented by special effects artist Masahiro Okano (who also directs a couple of the segments). The series consists of nine 30-minute stand-alone episodes. As with most anthologies, the quality varies from episode to episode, although in this case the majority of the material presented tends to be quite mediocre. While aesthetically the series is plagued by cheap CGI effects and a visually off-putting shot-on-video presentation, the real problem with a lot of this material is that it seems very derivative of better films.
    Episode 1 - Prayer Beads: As the first episode opens, we're introduced to Miki, a woman who has been suffering from severe depression ever since her two miscarriages and the mysterious disappearance of her husband. The focus then shifts to her visiting friend Hiroko, who herself has become pregnant. We soon discover that she is experiencing bizarre hallucinations. While there is some potential in the concept, it undercut with blatant J-Horror clichés... I'm sorry but images of slinky black haired apparitions are no longer frightening.
    Episode 2 - Vending Machine Woman: This is actually one of the better entries in the series. A couple on vacation visits a secluded cabin in the woods, but before they can settle down, they receive a warning from the owner not to go out after dark. It seems that there have been a series of disappearances in the area. From there, things get rather bizarre, as the couple discovers a vending machine that dispenses an odd drink that appears to cause a ravenous appetite for sex and raw meat (????). While the ending is somewhat predictable, the sheer peculiarity of the story gives this one an offbeat charm, and it's hard not to admire a story so outlandish.
    Episode 3 - It's Me: Two con artists call anonymous people on stolen cell phones and, while pretending to be relatives or friends, trick them into giving away their money. One of the criminals, a young man, visits an elderly lady to collect some cash. The lady appears to be senile and mistakes the man as her own grandson. He hesitatingly accepts her hospitality but soon begins to suspect that something is amiss. This is a very slow-moving entry with an unoriginal payoff (if you can call it that). It's also a bit confusing, but the story moves so slow that I doubt that anyone will want to watch a second time to make more sense of it... Easily one of the worst entries for sure.
    Episode 4 - Real: Azuma is a surgeon suffering from terrible headaches. After a brain scan fails to find anything physically wrong with him, he runs into Nagai, a former colleague who had similar problems and eventually "went berserk with a scalpel." Nagai warns Azuma that the headaches will eventually get worse unless he visits a former doctor. Azuma takes his advice and visits the mysterious figure, who administers medicine that offers terrible hallucinatory side effects. This entry reminds me a bit of Cronenberg's work and his fascination with body and flesh horrors... The imagery is sometimes undermined by poor CGI, and you never are fully immersed into the main character's paranoia, but this is a fairly decent entry nonetheless.
    Episode 5 - Mushroom Hunting: Three young adults who meet on the Internet decide to take a trip into the woods to pick mushrooms. While on the trail, they meet a strange old man who warns them of an old folklore about a witch who resides in a cottage deep in the woods. Naturally, the trio ignores his warnings and eventually comes across a secluded cottage in the middle of a large field of mushrooms. This is another good entry that comes across as an authentically grisly fairy tale, and there are some definite squirm-inducing moments towards the second half. Stick around for an amusing after-credits joke.
    Episode 6 - Eddie: An entry that manages to out-weird Vending Machine Woman, although this time around the line from bizarre to moronic is crossed in the climax. The entry is simply overstuffed and attempts too much that its running time (and budget) simply cannot accommodate. “Eddie” is a spotted seal whose appearance near a riverbank has caused a considerable amount of popularity. Meanwhile, a series of headless corpses begin to turn up along the shore. There's also a young child who has telekinetic powers and senses that something is terrible wrong. Unfortunately, his grandfather, who also happens to be the president of an association to "protect Eddie", will not believe him. Yes, it's about as stupid as it sounds, and the special effects are so poor at the end that it renders the busy action almost unwatchable.
    Episode 7 - Echoes: This is not a horror entry in the traditional sense... An elderly man searches for his missing granddaughter. This starts off very promisingly as the characters happen upon a severed arm (that literally falls from the sky!) and act out the situation in a very detached and dreamlike manner. Unfortunately, after that intriguing introduction, the story soon lapses into pretension. A sluggish pace doesn't help matters either. In this case, this entry is aptly titled, with an initial blast of surrealism that reverberates for a short while before diminishing into a faint nothing.
    Episode 8 - Cat's Paw: The problem with some of these entries is that they are over-reliant on a predictable last-minute twist. Nothing new this time around in this variation of the beloved and well-known Monkey's Paw story. The difference here is that the main character's wishes are granted by an online cartoon cat. Aside from that gimmick, things play out as you would expect. The ending is quite good, but then again a lot of that comes from the original story.
    Episode 9 - Apartment: An abusive man sits down at a table with his wife and kids and begins to verbally and physically torture them throughout dinner. This is actually the best entry in the series, with a slowly building intensity that reaches absolutely nerve-wracking levels... that is, until the goofy last-minute coda that attempts to tie all the episodes together. It's rather ironic that this was the final episode; these real life horrors are much more intense and frightening than a lot of the nonsense of the other entries, and the unfortunate epilogue of this series is a bitter reminder that J-Horror has somewhat runs its course (at least with this viewer). In a way it's very much like the stalk-and-slash scene of the 1980s, in which the market was flooded by derivative excess. It's a shame that a story of real psychological horror is cheapened by now tiresome scene clichés; it's supposed to be funny, but this is actually a joke in a different sense.