Re/Member review.
The concept of new Netflix release Re/Member results in a low-stakes story. Even when it has the opportunity to establish real problems it settles for something less. It has enough fun with the idea to make for a decent watch…but it could have easily been much more.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Re/Member
Directed by Eiichiro Hasumi
Written by Harumi Doki
Starring Kanna Hashimoto, Gordon Maeda, Maika Yamamoto, Fuju Kamio and Mayu Yokota
Re/Member Review
Re/Member is a very clever title. I wanted to get that out of the way before digging into the meat of the story. It serves a dual purpose as it relates to both the action of the movie and the stakes for the characters. It’s a genuinely brilliant stroke for a movie that could have used a few more common sense ones.
Re/Member is a time loop movie. Six students are trapped in the same day until they can find every piece of a corpse. Once they…re-member the body the curse will be lifted. The catch? They won’t remember that it happened or any of the friendships they forged over the time period. Like I said…it’s a great title.
We’ve seen the time loop horror story done before. Happy Death Day is probably the most successful example…but it’s not the only one. That movie finds comedy in its character’s trap as she grows as a person over the course of her repeating day. Re/Member attempts to add a layer of sadness to the loop by stripping away the development of the characters upon exiting the loop.
Happy Death Day was smart enough to recognize something that Re/Member doesn’t. The ability to relive the day nullifies any suspense or scares associated with death. Happy Death Day gets around it by focusing on what the loop opens up in storytelling. A character going on a journey of personal growth surrounded by people who never change is interesting. Crafting a whodunnit where the investigator can learn more and enter the next loop with that knowledge is too. Re/Member is far emptier in its pursuits.
The first half of Re/Member plays out like a great idea for a video game. Imagine an online game where six player controlled characters run around the map trying to find hidden limbs to assemble a dead body before a ghost catches them and takes them out of the round. That’s a good game. It’s a middling movie…but it’s a good game. Maybe it’s just slightly different tasks than the Friday the 13th video game…but hey…that’s a good game.
The problem with the first half of Re/Member is that there are zero stakes. For what it’s worth, the characters recognize this. They get their tasks done to the best of their abilities but don’t worry about dying. If they aren’t worried…there’s no reason for you to either. Halfway through the movie things change. The problem is that it changes to the wrong thing.
The ghost that is chasing them transforms into a big monster that can eat the characters. Once they are eaten…they aren’t around when the day resets and anyone not stuck in the loop doesn’t even remember them ever existing. Permadeath would solve the stakes issue. It would put suspense and fear back into the picture. Unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening.
What’s actually at stake in Re/Member is the character development we watch unfold. Specifically, a burgeoning romance between two characters. They come out of their shells in the loop and, to them, losing what they’ve become is a terrible fate. The problem is that it isn’t to the viewer. Death is a worse fate. A fate required to make anything that’s happening feel like it is important. Even the new middling stakes are mitigated by something else we learn around the halfway point.
We meet a character who has survived a previous version of these events. Doing so walks a hard line between giving us exposition and nullifying the value of the new stakes. He remembers enough to tell the new characters that they won’t remember anything. It’s a bit of a mess. It also puts a giant hole into our worry that the characters won’t remember anything about their time in the loop. It’s an odd choice all around.
All of that said, Re/Member isn’t a bad movie. If you walk in treating it like an oddly framed romance story…it’s actually pretty good. It has a fun premise in spite of how it uses it. Had it chosen to raise the stakes it would have worked better. The two lead characters arcs are worth following and rooting for…and that’s what Re/Member is going for.
Scare Value
Re/Member is a decent time loop horror movie…but its choices prevent it from becoming more than that. The nature of reliving a day goes against what makes death scary. Re/Member eventually tries to find something to give it stakes…but it chooses the wrong thing. What results is a tremendous video game concept that ended up an ok movie.
2.5/5
Re/Member Link
Streaming on Netflix
Re/Member Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Re/Member, check out more netflix movie reviews Choose or Die and Mr. Harrigan’s Phone
