It feels like that this movie tried so hard to be on par with the excellent 'Noroi'. Koji Shiraishi, wanted to exploit Cthulian horror again, but he really ended up with a 'wannabe-Noroi'.
Adding a K-pop protagonist, and reducing the horror to worms, which this time are visible, not ectoplasmic, and tangible, extinguishes the scariness of this movie, unlike the lurking Lovecraftian entities in 'Noroi' and 'Occult', the 'bakemono' is now material.
However, despite the tangibility of the demonic entity in this movie, I like - which I hope is true - the disparity of the techniques used to show both human and demonic subjects.
I believe that this deliberate use of what-is-being-criticized-for-being-bad-special-effects, actually serves a purpose. This being that it sets a contrast in between what is real and preternatural.
This out-of-placeness of the supernatural object allows the mind to strongly reject their presence in the setting, which is why I feel, people were reacting so vehemently against the CGIs used in both 'Occult' and 'Cult'.
Nonetheless, the self-plagiarism feeling was very off-putting: the theme, the tone, the characters, the direction, the colouring and lighting effect, hell even the SCORE felt borrowed, from his previous movie.
It sucks that Koji could not exploit the 'Kami' myths/stories/legends/folklore which his country so abundantly offers.
