I f you watched this Japanese-language ghost-story horror thriller cold, you might be a little surprised that the credits reveal that the director is one Dave Boyle – and not someone from Japan , so steeped is it in Japanese lore and culture. It turns out that Boyle has been interested in Japan for a long time, and even wrote, directed and starred in the 2006 feature film Big Dreams Little Tokyo, about an American sharing a flat with an aspiring sumo wrestler.

More recently, Boyle was a key director-producer for the Netflix series House of Ninjas, and Never After Dark seems to have evolved as a spun-off side hustle between Boyle and Ninjas star Kento Kaku, who produced it and takes a supporting role.

That all goes a little way to explain how this ends up feeling like a larky, low-stakes, one-for-funsies exercise – inventive and full of charm even if the scares are sort-of predictable.

Shogun ’s Moeka Hoshi stars as Airi, a young woman who looks like a hipster with her torn jeans and raggedy haircut and…