CIFF 2025 Movie Review: New Group

Before my screening of New Group, director Yûta Shimotsu introduced the film and heavily emphasized that the movie was “weird.” Coming from the director himself, I knew we were in for something unique, and New Group did not disappoint. It is a bizarre, hilarious, and at times terrifying film with a strong social message.

New Group takes place at a prestigious high school in Japan. Ai (Actress) is a typical student who is easily swayed by her peers. On a seemingly normal day, a few students in a trance-like state start forming a human pyramid in the soccer field. They don’t speak, and they don’t move. Soon, more students join the human pyramid, none of them speaking and none of them moving. As the human pyramid grows to the hundreds, Ai, with the help of new student Yu, does everything in her power not to get caught in the human pyramid as it expands beyond the school.

New Group is a relevant and timely movie about conformity and what happens when you constantly follow the crowd.  Ai is constantly being pressured to do what everyone else is doing, despite what she really thinks. As the human pyramid grows bigger on the school soccer field and outside the school, it becomes harder for Ai to say no. In a world of social media trends and dances and needing to stay up to date with what is “popular”, New Group shows that always conforming to what everyone else is doing might not be what is best for you or society.

Shimotsu hammers this message home by using absurdist humor and bizarre horror sequences. There is something eerie about seeing high school students and teachers build a large human pyramid, but the real horror comes when Ai and Yu are being chased by some of the pyramid students, who form a what I can only describe as a human truck, featuring students rolling, crawling, and chanting. This is the most terrifying but also jaw-dropping sequence, as the students close in on Ai and Yu while chanting a cult-like chant, while doing insane stunts. The way the students move is astonishing yet will also send chills down your spine as you envision an endless group of your peers trying to get you to join their pyramid and the “Greater Good”, as is referred to in the film. There are images and scenes in this film I won’t soon forget.

There is a deeper emotional piece of New Group that gives us more detail about why Ai goes with the crowd, which didn’t completely work for me. But when the film was working, it worked brilliantly. The New Group is a wholly unique horror satire that is just as funny as it is creepy. It’s funny, terrifying, socially relevant, and solidifies Shimotsu as a modern J-horror genius.

New Group played in the After Dark section of the 2025 Chicago International Film Festival.

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