This is a Japanese horror of Ringu (1998) ilk, all about vengeful wraiths and the monstrousness of female emotions.

It’s possible that Naoto Ihara (Daiki Shigeoka) has the perfect life, at least that’s how it looks from the outside. He has a beautiful wife Miyuki (Uika First Summer), a perky son Haruto (Minato Shougaki) and even a house with a garden, seemingly a rarity for someone of his station. With typical dad humour, he convinces Haruto that a lizard’s discarded tail can grow another lizard if he plants it and chants a prayer over it. This is a horror so we know this won’t end well.

The prayers work, which isn’t really a problem until Naoto gets a call at work to tell him his wife and son have been in a traffic accident. His son survives and tries the same spell with his dead mother’s severed finger. Now we’re talking!

There’s another story thread though that uncovers the cracks in Naoto’s marriage. Coworker Hiroko Kurasawa (Kanna Hashimoto) attracted the ire of Miyuki seven years earlier when Naoto saved Hiroko from an abusive boss. Miyuki, it seems, has a problem with jealousy, and judging by the supernatural happenings directed at Hiroko, some terrible powers. And death doesn’t stop her.

The premise is not a bad one, although the structure of the story with helpful flashbacks feels a little pedestrian. It’s the kind of horror where the plucky heroine does a lot of gasping and screaming and seems perennially surprised and confused. The best scenes are when the film doesn’t take itself too seriously – Haruto’s death stare and a subplot with a psychic Kenshin Daimon (Shinobu Hasegawa) and his Black Butler-like henchman (Kenta Izuka) are gold.

That the source of the horror is a woman’s uncontrollable emotion and jealousy feels tired, particularly when in real life women are more likely to die at the hands of men for this reason. Miyuki as undead wraith is pretty creepy and her back story connects the dots, albeit a tad conveniently. It’s worth it for the grifter nun though.

With delightful serendipity, during a dive into IMDb to find actor names I discovered that director Hideo Nakata is the director of Ringu (1998), Ringu 2 (1999) and the US remake The Ring 2 (2005), although not the superior first remake The Ring (2002). He also made Dark Water (2002), another solid supernatural frightener. The Forbidden Play doesn’t feel as taught or as scary.

It’s a fun ride but sits in an uncomfortable space between parody and reality. Don’t expect too much and you might find yourself looking over your shoulder as you walk down a dark suburban street on your way home.