Urban Legends. The stories you hear about your county, your town, your street, maybe even about a particular person, or an incident. Take Freddy, Jason, Mike Myers, and the like, and what have you got ? Urban Legends. Well, urban legends exist in other countries as well. Take Japan for instance. There are many of them. One that is quite popular is of a locker located somewhere in Tokyo (mainly in the Shibuya area) that if you profess your love for someone in front of, place a gift in the locker, and give that person the key, and they open the locker, then that person is your true love. Now, what if there was an urban legend that happened before the afore mentioned urban legend... and regarding the very same locker? This is the mystery behind The Locker (Japanese title: Shibuya Kaidan).

And, in the tradition of urban legends, this one is told around a campfire as well. Interestingly enough... the five friends that learn the story are quick to dismiss the initial warning signs (which is the typical "hey, don't go in there" type of warnings) until one friend begins acting funny. Quickly, the remaining friends return to where they had set up camp two nights before to find an abandoned fetus. From here on out, the movie picks up some speed.

They go to visit their recently freaked friend in the hospital, and she hands Ayano (our main character) a locker key. She then begins to convulse and thrash about. The doctors give her a seditaive, and calm her down. Ayano looks at the key in her hand. It has "0009" emblazened on the back, and Shibuya in Kanji on the front. Ayano and her friends begin to become concerned about the legend they had heard, and decide to find the locker, in search of breaking the curse. In the process to learn about the urband legend Ayano's friends begin to vanish, and time is running out. As the search twists and turns more and more of the REAL urban legend behind the more popular one begin to surface. Even though the story seems to be mimicking the U.S. style, the plot twists were nice.

After having viewed some of the more popular titles, to know that there are some Japanese cinema that would get the "B-movie" rating causes me to want to investigate further. The special effects in the movie really do add to the story, and popped up in the most unexpected places. The film itself kind of has that "almost complete" feel to it. But then again, that does make sense, seeing as how there's both The Locker, and The Locker 2 on the same DVD.

Most people would say this is a rip from the American-made "Urban Legend", or countless others. But given the legend (one of which I've asked a few of my Japanese friends about, and it is one that well known in Japan) and the difference of culture, pushes this movie past the typical "B-movie" rating. The outcomes of these two films are decent, and I didn't expect them to end the way they did. If you like the atypical "slasher" or "possessed child" (not at all like Chucky in Child's play) then check this flick out. Not a screamer, but enough to make you open cupboards very slowly.