The Convenience Store from Jirô Nagae follows Tazuru Yukino (Kotona Minami), a college student who works night shifts at a Konbini. However, during one of her shifts, she receives a mysterious SD card of murder. Over the next four shifts, she receives a different SD card, resulting in a cyclical supernatural horror that overstays its welcome.
The Convenience Store is based on the 2020 indie game of the same name. It’s a survival horror where the player has to clock in for the night shift, do tasks associated with working the night shift, and eventually face supernatural elements like stalkers or automatic doors opening on their own. Most of all, the game relies heavily on a sense of a chilling atmosphere.
Any person who has worked a graveyard shift, especially alone, knows it can be really creepy. Nagae understands how to build this feeling. At first, the supernatural elements and the mystery are effective at creating a chill down your spine, but soon everything becomes predictable.
There is a great sequence where the Konbini transforms — now the shelves are covered in TVs with static, and the floor is covered in rusty nails. The scene is terrifying and unsettling.
For such a fun and inventive sequence, it is unfortunate that the same sequence is used again when Detective Shinji Saruwatari (Terunosuke Takezai) gets involved. Saruwatari is introduced in this film after Yukino, on her final night, finds a body; she is interviewed by Saruwatari, with the SD cards being in evidence. After he watches the cards, he is dragged in.
This introduction of Saruwatari hurts the screenplay because it adds repetition: the audience has already seen the same incidents happen to Tazuru Yukino, so when they happen to Saruwatari, any momentum is gone.
One interesting approach from Nagae is a mixture of first-person and third-person perspectives. I was hoping for a completely first-person approach, as that felt like a natural transition from the survival horror game to the film.
Kotona Minami isn’t given much to do; however, similar to the game in sense, she is meant to be a blank slate of a character, not to have that in-depth understanding. She is easy to place ourselves into, much like placing ourselves into a game character.
Terunosuke Takezai plays Shinji Saruwatari really comically. He is seeing all these supernatural events unfold, but as a detective, he needs a logical explanation. Unfortunately, despite the performance, his sequences slowed the plot.
The Convenience Store is similar to its predecessor. Like the game, it finds a truly creepy atmosphere and tone. However, it quickly loses momentum as sequences are repeated and the supernatural elements lose their uniqueness. Either way, good luck to all the third shift workers out there.
Review Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Courtesy of NBC Universal