In January and February, the new Uitkijk series is dedicated to Invisible Forces. For this program, we have selected films in which characters are confronted with elusive, all-encompassing forces that shape their lives in different ways. The films move between horror, magical realism, and existential nightmares, showing how people struggle, falter, and sometimes break under the weight of the unknown.
A series of gruesome murders committed by perpetrators who remember nothing of their crimes. Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) investigates the possibility that the killers were hypnotized by the same suspect, who is still at large. As he attempts to put an end to the terror, Takabe discovers just how disturbingly close the force behind the murders truly is. His colleague, psychologist Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), argues that no one can be forced to commit murder without, on some level, wanting to do so. Together, they uncover a sinister psychological phenomenon that begins to infiltrate not only the investigation, but Takabe’s own life and marriage. Is there a Cure?
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a master of the J-Horror genre, known for films such as PULSE (2001). In CURE, his fascination with quiet dread, oppressive atmosphere, and hypnotic mysticism reaches a harrowing peak. The long takes are almost clinical, drawing attention to what unfolds in the background or just out of sight. Kurosawa’s use of sound—and silence—transforms the everyday into something deeply unsettling. CURE is an underseen and rarely screened masterpiece of psychological tension: a hallucinatory journey into the darkest corners of the human mind.