Many years ago, Keita’s little brother played hide and seek in an abandoned building in the woods and vanished without a trace. When his mother sends Keita a VHS tape with mysterious footage of said day, the young man decides to solve the puzzle of the boy’s disappearance once and for all. Missing Child Videotape is deeply rooted in the traditions and tropes of J-horror. With executive producer Takashi Shimizu (director, The Grudge), it even has one of the trailblazers of the genre on board. Its abstinence from loud, noisy suspense mechanisms creates an even denser, more depressing atmosphere of restlessness and dread, with Ryota Kondo emerging as the leading voice of the new J-horror wave. (Markus Keuschnigg)