Variety announces that famed and celebrated Japanese director, Hideo Nakata, will helm the American produced film, Chatroom. Since Nakata is the Japanese expert on horror/suspense, the question is not whether or not Chatroom will be scary, but rather how scary will it be?
Nakata’s first directing foray, Ringu, spawned an American knockoff, a Japanese sequel, an American sequel and now a third American flick! It’s safe to say that it was a phenomenon. Now, with Nakata directing Chatroom and the third installment of the American Ring franchise, he's neck deep in the thriller/horror/suspense niche he has so carefully carved for himself. I’m not sure he’s interested in diversifying. According to IMDB, the bulk of Nakata’s work has been on horror flicks. With a few dramedies sprinkled in, Nakata’s resume is packed with twisty terror flicks like Dark Water.
The newest addition to his growing resume, Chatroom, follows a few semi-wayward teens as they push one another to the brink of bad behavior. Personally, I can’t stand teenagers, especially ones who are peer pressuring each other. I say, go ahead and kill ‘em off. I’m sure that with Nakata’s simmering-in-terror technique, it won’t be so simple. It’s hard to make killing teenagers seem classy, but I have no doubt Nakata will succeed and doing just that.
