Death Note (Adam Wingard, 2017)

Hollywood's ransacking of Japanese horror manga continues with a wholly unnecessary loose remake of the first of the live-action versions of the story. The story essentially involves a high school student who comes across a notebook which causes the death of anyone known to the writer whose name is written in it. He begins by offing just truly evil people and then predictably loses focus. It's a premise with legs, explaining why it has gone on for so long in Japan, and the death god Ryuk who periodically visits the hapless protagonist to taunt and cajole him is an unsettlingly opaque presence: having Willem Dafoe voice the character was probably the best decision made in this adaptation. On the other hand, focusing excessively on the sulky teenage lead instead of his more interesting demonic tormentor, adding a spurious love interest and cramming in as much as possible from the source material in case the U.S. franchise doesn't take off do it no favours at all.

4/10