The first time I saw a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film, it wasn't the jump scares that lingered—it was the dread. That slow, creeping unease that settles in your bones and makes you check over your shoulder hours later. With Cloud, his latest thriller, Kurosawa isn't just playing with fear; he's holding up a mirror to the way hatred metastasizes online, and the reflection is uncomfortably familiar.
The film follows Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda), a young man flipping cheap goods for profit, who stumbles into the crosshairs of an anonymous online mob. At first, it's just words on a screen—until the threats bleed into reality. The trailer opens with a chilling question: “You don't sell anything dubious, do you?”—a line that feels innocuous until you realize how quickly suspicion spirals into violence. Kurosawa, ever the master of atmospheric tension, frames Yoshii's paranoia with clinical precision. Shadows stretch too long. Strangers stare just a beat too hard. The digital world isn't just a backdrop; it's the monster.
What's striking is how Cloud diverges from Kurosawa's earlier horror roots (Cure, Pulse). This isn't a ghost story—it's a thriller about the ghosts we create. The “bag mask” figure haunting Yoshii isn't supernatural; it's the physical manifestation of faceless online rage. The film's Japanese title, クラウド (literally “cloud”), isn't just a tech reference; it's a metaphor for how malice disperses and condenses, untraceable until it's too late.
Kurosawa premiered Cloud at the 2024 Venice Film Festival (where it was a quiet favorite), then screened it at TIFF and Beyond Fest. It hit Japanese theaters last September and the UK earlier this spring. Now, Janus Films is bringing it to the U.S. on July 18, 2025. Timing is everything—in an era where cancel culture and doxxing dominate headlines, Cloud feels less like fiction and more like a cautionary tale we're already living.
The trailer's most unsettling moment isn't a jump scare—it's a crowd of ordinary people, their faces lit by phone screens, chanting in unison. Collective madness, indeed. Kurosawa has always understood that true horror isn't about the unknown; it's about recognizing yourself in the darkness. Cloud might be his most urgent film yet.
So here's the question: When the mob comes for you—online or otherwise—will you even see it coming?
