The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident (2024) Film Review – From Drunken Idea into Hungover Reality [Unnamed Footage Festival]

Posted on by Jim Cox

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The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident is a 2024 Japanese found-footage horror film written and directed by Guy and Dave Jackson. An Osaka-based, English-born director, the mononymous Guy is known as the director of such films as The Sound of Summer (2022), as well as the short films The Rope Maiden (2013), Difficulty Breathing (2017), and the aptly named 2 Girls 1 Gut (2022). Australian filmmaker Dave Jackson is most notable as the director of the feature-length cult slasher Cat Sick Blues (2016), the horror comedy Cannibal Suburbia (2008), as well as the short film Gatcha Gatcha (2018).

Starting as nothing but a drunken whim, filmmakers Guy and Dave, along with their bartender friend Kuromi, set out to explore the site of the brutal and mysterious murder of a young woman in a love hotel–an incident that took place twenty years prior. The trio makes their way into a town in the middle of nowhere, which is rife with rumours of ghosts and curses, and the now abandoned building. They document their night in the murder room–a night that becomes a terrifying ordeal.

A concept born from the directors’ binge-watching found-footage films together, The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident certainly takes inspiration from some of the genre’s best and brightest. With its initial deliberately slow pacing, detailed exposition dumps, supernatural investigation, and even time travel, the film feels like a blend of the films of Koji Shiraishi–most notably a mix of the Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! and Koji Shiraishi’s Never Send Me, Please series of films. The exponential building of this pace, tension, and fluidity culminates into an adrenaline-fueled supernatural romp that mirrors the sentiments of the director’s work without feeling derivative of its content. While the narrative has similarities to real-world events, such as the Shinjuku–Kabukicho Love Hotel murders or the Sapporo Love Hotel murder, the film has no strong connection to any actual crime, and any similarities are coincidental.

Beginning with footage shot through a vertical movie phone in a 19:6 ratio, the initial framing of two friends on holiday aids in an organic introduction to our characters often overlooked in the genre, naturally bypassing any awkward introduction to cast or locale. However, as the narrative progresses from a drunken idea into a hungover reality, the switch to a more professional camera with a standardised 16:9 ratio transforms the film from a candid holiday video into a more professional investigative documentary. Furthermore, as scenes are transitioned through hard cuts, the film feels like raw footage taken straight from the source, further compounding the attained realism.

As the cast plays themselves and knows each other outside of filmmaking, the acting in The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident is entirely naturalistic throughout. The group’s inquisitive yet uneasy approach to the investigation, the trepidation of traveling to the abandoned building, and the anxiety that replaces it are all delivered earnestly. Additionally, the group’s response to the inexplicable occurrences they witness is highly animated without feeling excessive, providing a relatively understandable response to the situation at hand.

As the directors are known for their use of practical effects in films, The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident certainly doesn’t disappoint in that regard. Although more restrained in application compared to some of their previous work, the effects remain powerfully visceral in delivery—realized through a single, seamless tracking shot.

A fantastic building of tension that comes to a crescendo of supernatural spookiness, The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident is an absorbing inquest into Japan’s superstitious urban legends. With pragmatic performances from the cast, skillfully implemented effects, and a tantalisingly mysterious narrative, the film is an observable love letter to the Japanese found footage genre and comfortably sits in the upper echelon of the eclectic category of films.

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We watched The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident (2024) as part of this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival. The film will screen Friday 28th at 22:20.

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