Logan Huffman, Natalia Warner, and Brandon Tyler Sklenar star as Americans who visit Japan to research local temples.
When Chris attempts to purchase the book, the proprietor abruptly refuses to sell it and closes her shop.
After Seita sells him the folklore book, Chris experiences several strange encounters, feeling that something is stalking him.
They at first have trouble finding a villager that will talk to them, but one tells them of a man named Hitoshi, who returned from a trip to the temple blind and claiming to have had visions.
After agreeing, Chris sees an eyeless man; he identifies himself as Hitoshi and reveals that 50 years ago, several children went missing.
The bandaged man becomes enraged when they deny that Seita is there with them, and he stabs the translator with a pen before escaping the room.
Justin Low of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "comes off as more of a half-hearted attempt at exploiting typical J-horror themes than an actual homage".
[2] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Kimber Myers said that the film has some nice visuals but offers nothing new.
[5] Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine rated it one out of five stars and called it a "walking tour of J-horror's hoariest signposts" that might have been better had Simon Barrett's regular partner, Adam Wingard, directed it.
[6] Ryan Larson of Nightmarish Conjurings gave the film a negative review, writing, "Although the movie is very clearly filled with good intentions, it misses the mark.
[9] Jake Dee of Arrow in the Head rated the film a score of four out of ten, calling it "a boring, underdone conjuration of worn out J-horror convention".