I ran to New Group the second I found out it was made by the same filmmaker who gave us Best Wishes to All. At the risk of ruining my own review in the first paragraph, it’s just as dark, chaotic, and fun as Yûta Shimotsu’s previous movie. It is also packing a helluva statement, much like the film that put this name on most of our radars.
What’s Going on Here?
High school student Ai (Anna Yamada) is not popular. She’s also dealing with a lot of family problems at home. So, when she sees classmates begin forming weird human pyramids outside the school, she tries to stay out of it. However, she soon realizes that she and her crush, Yu (Yuzu Aoki), are in very real danger as this new limber and cult-like trend soon expands beyond her school grounds. As her whole city begins to fall into mindless formations, things get much more sinister. Ultimately, Ai must conform or risk being crushed by one of the dazzling shapes made out of people.
Why It’s Cool
New Group makes it very clear it’s about conformity, groupthink, and the mindless way many people fall in line. That makes it a prescient film, or perhaps, evergreen. However, it’s hard to look at this J-Horror and not think of the stuff we see online every day. Or, the people we lost because they refused to think critically and believed Fox News and bigots with large platforms. That’s where the real horror lives in 2025.
That being said, on a surface level, this movie also rocks because of the twisted humor, and the dramatic reveals. It also rolls a couple of these human formations into the lane of body horror. This is the second film Shimotsu has made that I just want to transfer what I have seen into everyone else’s brain. It would be easier than trying to put the glory, the WTF, and the sick imagery into words. Words that will never fully do his work justice anyway. I dug New Group and fell for it harder the more I thought about it after the credits ended. It walks the line between dread and humor that I personally live for. It makes it’s point in a fun way and isn’t afraid to get weirder than you would ever believe. I don’t know if it’s more (or less) accessible for audiences than Best Wishes to All. But it’s still a great time for the weirdos like me and that’s what really matters.
