A groom-to-be finds himself trapped deep underground in an abandoned manhole. In a race against time to make it to his wedding, he hatches a plan to use social media to help his escape.
… but will social media help, or hinder? Shunsuke Kawamura (Yûto Nakajima) is drugged and left in a manhole after a surprise congratulatory party with his coworkers. With an injured leg and broken ladder, he struggles as everyone he calls doesn’t pick up the phone. His GPS is giving the wrong location and the manhole is slowly filling up with grease and grime, but with the help of his old flame Mai (Nao Honda) and internet sleuths on a Twitter-like platform Pecker, Shunsuke may just get out of this in time for his big day. #Manhole, though, is full of twists and surprises.
At first glance, you’re probably wondering how a story about a man in a hole could go on for an hour and a half; it’d get repetitive, right? Actually, no. After trying to climb the ladder and call for help, Shunsuke has the brilliant idea to create a Pecker profile to request more-immediate help — as a woman, of course (because pretty girls are more likely to get internet white knights to help them).
And this is the first instance of #Manhole being different from other “trapped” movies. There are plenty of real-life instances of internet sleuths making attempts — sometimes successful — at solving crimes. It’s a creative solution to a one-man-one-room scenario. And with on-screen scrolls through the Pecker feed, you’re brought right in to help solve this crime too.
But let’s not forget that #Manhole is a Japanese horror movie; there are bound to be some twists and turns in that 99-minute runtime. I won’t spoil anything, but the more the internet pries into “Manhole Girl’s” predicament, the crazier the story gets. #Manhole acts like a whodunit mystery thriller turned upside down. One minute I think I know who the culprit is, and another I’m rooting for someone else entirely. At the end, everything comes together in a bombshell of a conclusion.
#Manhole brings this subgenre into the age of social media, where anonymous minds have the power to help you out of a situation, but that same technology can be your downfall. In a film that doesn’t let your jaw recover from dropping, #Manhole is the ultimate Millennial “What if?” question. How would you survive? Or better yet, do you deserve to?
#Manhole is available to stream exclusively on Screambox today!
