It’s not often a movie comes along that leaves me genuinely struggling to decide how I felt about it, but the Japanese horror-comedy New Group has me genuinely conflicted. On the one hand, it’s filled with unique imagery unlike anything I’ve seen before, on the other the apparent budgetary limitations sometimes pulled me out of it. The message about the dangers of unquestioning obeisance to authority will never not ring true, but the complete lack of subtlety in the delivery and the overly saccharine finale dull the impact.

Shy Ai (Anna Yamada) is unpopular at her very unusual, very strict high school—at least, I hope it’s very unusual for the sake of Japanese teenagers. Quiet and brooding Yu (Yuzu Aoki) transfers to her class and is seated near her when everyone’s attention is drawn out the windows to a student who appears frozen in place, crouched on all fours in the schoolyard. Somehow everyone manages to move on as if he isn’t there, but before long more students join in and begin to form a human pyramid, with the school staff deciding to encourage it.

As the pyramid grows and more people appear to be entranced by a mysterious force, Yu’s rebellious streak keeps him safe and the normally compliant Ai, developing a crush on her new classmate, is in turn spared as a result of following him. With the bizarre epidemic rapidly growing in scale, it winds up being up to the two students to stop it from overtaking all of humanity.

Even before anything supernatural happens, the Japan of New Group feels intriguingly odd. As the strange events grow in frequency, scale, and danger it proves almost impossible to look away. At a certain point though, director Yûta Shimotsu’s vision begins to exceed his grasp, and the sometimes-cheap special effects combine with the story’s sillier elements to all but eliminate any suspense.

New Group remains just unusual enough to keep the viewer engaged, even through the altogether too silly final act, but in the end it feels like a bit of a lost opportunity. Absurd and entertaining, it’s unlike any other movie you’ll watch this year, or perhaps ever, and you can’t fault the filmmakers for their ambition. It’s just a shame the execution hadn’t been a little bit better. Despite the flaws though, this still marks out Shimotsu as a director to watch. ★★★½

Not Rated. Contains violence, bloody images, thematic content, some language, and smoking.