Full trailer for Nakata Hideo’s The Complex delivers on creepiness

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The auteur responsible for the J-Horror boom of the last decade is back at it, and the trailer to his latest offering looks unsettlingly creepy.

Influential Japanese director Nakata Hideo returns to form with his hypnotically frightening signature style with the full trailer for his latest work, THE COMPLEX. We first shared a teaser for this creepy looking flick with you back in January but this new trailer (which you can see below) delivers on some truly frightening imagery and it is not hard to see why fans of the heralded director are excited for this flick.

Hideo was the man responsible for spawning many imitators with his terrifying RINGU (later effectively remade as THE RING), and later delivered the chilling DARK WATER (also remade to lesser effect). With THE COMPLEX Hideo looks to return to his old tricks, using visually striking imagery and lighting to evoke terror along with some genuinely spooky-looking ghost/baddies. Check out the trailer for THE COMPLEX below.

Nursing student Asuka (Atsuko Maeda) has just moved into an apartment complex with her parents and younger brother. On the first night in her new room, she is awoken by a strange scratching sound coming from the apartment of her neighbor, a reclusive old man who has refused all attempts at communication. Concerned over his well being, Asuka enters his home only to find him dead from malnutrition. Worse, it looks as if he had been trying to claw his way into her room.

Asuka learns that there have been a number of strange deaths in the complex over the years from Shinobu (Hiroki Narimiya), the handyman cleaning up the old man’s apartment. Even the girls at school whisper rumors of it being haunted. When the late night scratching returns, Asuka ventures back into her neighbor’s home and comes face to face with an apparition of the old man!

Panicked by the discovery of her apartment emptied and her family gone, Asuka seeks help from Shinobu, who brings in a spiritualist to exorcise Asuka of the evil surrounding her. However, as she delves into the girl’s predicament, the spiritualist discovers that signs points not to the old man but to a small boy living in the complex with a past as tragic as the one Asuka herself lives in denial of.

No word yet on a release date but you can be sure once it hits we’ll be hearing about an inevitable Americanized remake yet again.