I’ll chime in with my thoughts on the most recent episodes as well!
Hidden Link
This was probably my least favorite episode of the series so far, just because I don’t think it was really that scary or unique. Oh well! It was fun looking at some of the Japanese fan theories for it at least.
Take100
I liked this one! I wouldn’t call it a top fave but I thought it had some genuinely unsettling moments. If I had any criticism it’s that there maybe could’ve been a bit more to it, and I think it sort of blew the scariest takes a little early (the shadow creature was the scariest part, I thought).
I think the real horror of this one to me was the thought that the dead-body-looking shape might be a real body, but the actors might be performing while thinking that it’s just a prop. That’s my interpretation for now, at least. I think whoever is making the film wanted to capture something involving that body on film, thus all the takes, but the actors were blissfully unaware of what exactly they were sharing a room with that entire time.
Mother
Yeah, this one was a bit of a letdown, though I thought it was better than Hidden Link. It feels like the episode never fully got off the ground, and from what mummyvhs described, it sounds like you need to read the book to get the real scary hook.
When watching it initially, I was surprised/impressed by how well the guy was able to make out discernible kanji shapes from super blurry images, but as it went on, the connections he was seeing seemed to become more and more tenuous. It seems like the episode sort of wanted us to think that a ghost or something was trying to lure him somewhere, but it might be more of a Crying of Lot 49 situation going on… (For folks who haven’t read that book, it’s about a woman who seemingly uncovers this whole conspiracy by following a series of connections that may or may not actually be real)
Maybe this post will look really silly after I read the book and get some more insight into what’s actually going on here, haha.