New Group: A Bizarre Horror Satire About the Dangers of Conformity

2026 has been an incredible year for my Letterboxd account as I am on a generational run of watching fun, weird, and exciting movies that don't just deserve to be logged in my account but YOU need to know about.

Let me set the scene for you - it's Friday afternoon, and for once I didn't decide to head to my local movie theater and instead decided to stay in. It's getting cold in London, so I hope you can forgive me for choosing to stay in and stream instead of keeping the dream of cinema alive.

The film I chose to spend my precious and finite attention span with is Yuta Shimotsu's horror/satire film, New Group. New Group has to be one of the most bizarre and thought-provoking horror films I've seen in a while. In fact, it might just be one of the weirdest pieces of media I have consumed in my entire life.

The main character of the story is Ai (Anna Yamada) who gradually witnesses her entire school and town succumb to this strange mind control cult turning them into mindless followers who can perform insane gymnastics routines that become almost like paramilitary formations. One of those formations is this human pyramid which is on the poster of the film and becomes a symbol of the core themes of the story.

I don't think my description of the film truly describes how weird and out there this movie is. We essentially follow this group of kids, mainly through the lens of Ai, and explore various common tropes from Japanese high school dramas such as bullying, intimidation, and hierarchy.

The high school setting is the perfect environment and mirror to explore the main themes and messages of the movie which are all a wider commentary on Japan's culture of conformity. A phrase you will often hear on social media from the Japan content creators is "the nail that sticks out will be hammered down." This movie is the literal personification of that phrase.

There are various characters in the story that have their individuality questioned and "hammered down," including our main character Ai who struggles to voice her opinion and goes along with whatever her friends and community say. This leads to several moments in the movie where Ai needs to break free from the pressures of conformity and embrace her own individuality to save the very society that has chained her down all these years.

I enjoyed the unique concept of using the body horror genre as a vehicle to criticise Japan's social pressures but the story became very stale very quickly. Once the entire school and town become brainwashed by this unexplained mind control/cult like "thing", the plot decended into various different tropes, which were present throughout the entire movie.

Even the final showdown between individuality and conformity was quirky and fun to see but it didnt leave me with much of an impression afterwards. I also think this film would have benefitted greatly from more gore, blood and just "horror". It became more satire and social commentary as the film progressed as opposed to the horror genre that it claims to be.

What I will say about this film is that it has all the ingredients for becoming a Japanese cult classic that western cinephiles praise over the years. If this film came out in a different era where horror hasnt had the kind of revival that we've witnessed post covid, it would be much more talked about then it is.

If you're interested in watching New Group, it is currently streaming on the shudder channel on Prime.