(2015)
Dir - Kōji Shiraishi
Overall: WOOF
The same year that Kōji Shiraishi "wrapped-up" his Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi series with Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi: Final Chapter, things keep right-on chugging along, as Senritsu Kaiki File Super Kowa Too! Fear Adventure: Kokkuri-san demonstrates. Considered that the world ended in the last installment and everyone teleported to a new past timeline where memories were supposedly wiped, this one barely touches base on any of that nonsense and simply picks up almost where everything began. Yet apparently in THIS universe, Shigeo Ôsako and Chika Kuboyama's paranormal DVD series is still a thing and is now given a new branding, even though absolutely nothing to the formula has changed to warrant such a new branding. Ôsako is still the biggest asshole on the planet and even more hot-headed then usual, looking for a supernatural fight and any excuse to beat up women that he can get. Shiraishi is playing things for laughs at this point if one can actually find Ôsako's misogynistic and rage-fueled behavior "funny", but as far as the found footage spook show moments go, this is easily the lamest assortment of them yet, not to mention some of the most instantly forgettable that the sub-genre has ever produced.
(2015)
Dir- Kōji Shiraishi
Overall: WOOF
The longest in the now nine-deep Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi series was also the last to be produced for almost a decade, signifying that enough was finally enough already. Judging by the direction that this and the proceeding, (and terrible), Senritsu Kaiki File Super Kowa Too! Fear Adventure: Kokkuri-san was heading, it was looking like we were back to a new urban legend per episode within a formula that had already grown stale with a bombardment of these in so short a time. Thankfully we were sparred, and the franchise took a much needed break after the dead end that it had steamrolled into. Regrettably and predictably at this point, Senritsu Kaiki File Super Kowa Too! Dark Mystery: Snake Woman is some pretty horrid stuff, arguably the worst of the lot. It cannot be overstated how obnoxious and not at all funny Shigeo Ôsako's hot-headed douchebag is in all of these movies, and on top of his usual penchant for screaming at and beating the shit out of anything that he feels like at any given whim, he also comes to one moronic conclusion after the next. In fact every character here behaves irrationally, which would be hilarious if not for director Kōji Shiraishi's inability to convey a proper comedic tone, if that was even what he was going for. Instead, it is a painful bore with occasional loud noises thrown in to wake people up, as well as a story centered around a "Huh?" love story between a pathetic peeping tom dipshit and the young snake woman of the title, (as well as her also aggressive and wacky mom).
(2023)
Dir - Kōji Shiraishi
Overall: MEH
Why horror mockumentary devotee Kōji Shiraishi decided to resurrect his Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi series after an eight year break is anybody's guess. Maybe enough time has gone by that fans of the series are jonesing for a legacy sequel and in this respect, Shiraishi delivers one. It may not be the most ridiculous entry in the franchise, but it probably is since never before was the humor so direct, nor was the piss taken out of the well-worn tropes that each installment indulged in. Shigeo Ôsako and Chika Kuboyama reprise their roles as the director/co-director duo who openly disdain each other, and as usual, both actors behave as if they are here by gunpoint, physically abusing one another while looking miserable. Ôsako's character, (easily one of the worst in any horror franchise), is as big of a ranting and pathetic buffoon as he always was, but Kuboyama gives it right back to him, which still does not explain why they are bothering to make a new movie after so long in the first place. As far as the supernatural shenanigans go, they touch base on the more topsy-turvy motifs that came before, (world jumping, psychic medium badasses, time travel, and arbitrary supernatural rules getting abused and made up on the fly), but the choice to shoot at the same factory location as Shin'ichirō Ueda's also absurd One Cut of the Dead seemed to rub off on the whole production. Met on its own oddball terms, it is a wild and uneven mess that has no business being taken seriously.
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