The Crone

In "The Crone," Ayane, Nanami, and Mayuko are three aspiring idols who have just been assembled into a new 3-member group called "Jersey Girl." The trio is thrilled to have been invited to appear on a popular television show about the paranormal, hosted by the enigmatic and charismatic Taro. The show, titled "Beyond the Veil," promises to take its guests to the most haunted and foreboding places in Japan, where they will attempt to uncover evidence of the paranormal and push their limits to the extreme. The girls are told that their next challenge will be to visit an abandoned nursing home in the mountains, a place rumored to be teeming with the spirits of former residents. The show's producers are particularly interested in determining which one of the girls is the bravest, and the trip will be documented on camera to gauge their reactions. As the girls arrive at the nursing home, they are greeted by an eerie silence. The once-stately building now stands like a monolith to decay and abandonment, its windows shattered, and its doors hanging crookedly on their hinges. Ayane, Nanami, and Mayuko are initially excited and a little nervous as they explore the musty corridors and rooms of the home. They snap photos, take notes, and conduct their own investigations, hoping to catch a glimpse of something inexplicable. But it's not long before strange things begin to happen. The girls hear creaks and groans in the wind, but these are soon replaced by more unsettling sounds: whispers, faint footsteps, and what sounds like a child crying. At first, they try to brush it off as the old building settling, but as the incidents escalate, they start to feel a creeping sense of unease. As they delve deeper into the nursing home, they start to turn on each other. Mayuko becomes increasingly withdrawn, claiming that she's experienced some strange visions that have left her shaken. Nanami takes to exploring the deeper recesses of the home, searching for evidence of the paranormal, while Ayane becomes more and more frustrated with the lack of concrete evidence. The tension between the girls grows as they argue over whose fault it is that things are going wrong. They start to suspect that each other is hiding secrets, and their relationships begin to fray. Meanwhile, Taro's voiceover continues to taunt them, goading them to push their limits and seek out the source of the paranormal activity. As night falls, and the girls are left to their own devices, they start to experience more and more bizarre occurrences. Objects move on their own, ghostly apparitions flit around the edges of their vision, and the girls start to question their own sanity. It's clear that something is wrong, and that it's not just their own paranoia that's driving their experiences. But what exactly is going on? Is the nursing home truly haunted, or is it a setup by Taro and the show's producers to create a more dramatic narrative? And what lies at the heart of the strange occurrences that are driving the girls to the brink of madness? "The Crone" is a psychological horror film that masterfully crafts tension and suspense from the tensions between its three female leads. The film raises questions about the nature of reality and the power of the human psyche, as Ayane, Nanami, and Mayuko are forced to confront the darkness within themselves and the world around them.