The Forbidden Play

The Forbidden Play (2023) is a Japanese horror film you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Hideo Nakata — the filmmaker behind Ringu (1998) and Dark Water. Kanna Hashimoto leads the cast.

After losing his mother in an accident, a grieving boy recites a forbidden resurrection spell. What answers is not his mother. Nakata builds dread the old-fashioned way: no jump-cut shocks, just slow suffocating pressure as the boundary between the living and the dead erodes one scene at a time. At 110 minutes it plays like a patience test — and wins it. Stream The Forbidden Play online on iFILM.