Kamen gakuen

Riding the tide of teen-horror flicks following Masato Hara’s Ring, this work — directed by Takashi Komatsu — is about a bizarre new school trend. After years of putting up with getting bullied and harassed, one student comes to school wearing a paper-white hockey mask. His perceived anonymity gives him the strength to tell off his tormentors. Soon other such victims begin displaying similar headgear and the masked group develops into something of a cult. They start throwing wild parties where they recklessly flaunt their individuality from behind their protective facial prosthetics. Then one masked students ends up dead, prompting a fellow student (Maya Kurosu) to investigate.