Bloat: Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic star in Japanese horror film

Variety broke the news that Ben McKenzie (Gotham) and Bojana Novakovic (Beyond Skyline) star in the Japanese horror film Bloat, which started production in New York and is now moving to Japan. Written and directed by Tokyo-based filmmaker Pablo Absento, Bloat is a co-production between Timur Bekmambetov‘s company Bazelevs, the Russian streaming service Okko, French production and sales company Pulsar Content, and Japanese production company flag Co., Ltd.

Buried in the article is the information that Bloat is indeed using Bekmambetov’s Screenlife filmmaking technique, “in which the story unfolds on the screens of the devices used by the movie’s characters.” So this will be something along the lines of Unfriended, Searching, etc.

Bloat will tell the story of

a military officer stationed in Turkey while his wife is vacationing in Japan with their kids. During the stay, their younger son almost drowns in a lake. Soon after the accident, the parents realize that something is wrong with their boy.

McKenzie and Absento are producing the film with Bekmambetov, Maria Zatulovskaya, and Anna Shalashina of Bazelevs; Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett of Pulsar Content; Hiroko Oda of flag Co., Ltd; and Dzhanik Fayziev of Okko. The Fantasia Film Festival’s artistic director Mitch Davis and Aleksandr Fomin serve as associate producers.

This marks the feature directorial debut of Absento, who previously directed the short films Call My Name, Shi, and Slit. Variety adds that she has also directed several episodes of SMA Horror (Smartphone Horror), a series produced by Takashi Shimizu, the creator of the Ju-on / Grudge franchise.

I’m not exactly enamored with this Screenlife stuff. It makes me reluctant to watch a movie – but then I have been surprised by how good some Screenlife movies were, so sometimes it works out. Maybe this will be one of the times it turns out well, because Bloat does sound interesting.