As we wait indifferently for the movie that makes sitting through the latest 3D technology for a couple of hours worthwhile, more and more filmmakers seem to have been pressed into embracing the process for an audience for whom content is far less important than the spectacle of presentation. Joining their number from the Far East is Japanese director Takashi Shimizu, the creative force behind Ju-on: The Grudge and all its sequels and American remakes.

Sticking to the trend, J-horror's first foray into 3D, The Shock Labyrinth 3D (Senritsu meikyû 3D), has a set-up as well worn as anything currently doing the rounds in horror Hollywood. Try this for size. When a small group of young friends spending the day at a theme park near the foot of Mount Fuji sneak into the park's haunted house attraction after hours, the innocent children's escapade results in the mysterious disappearance of one of them, Yuki. On a rainy evening ten years later, Yuki inexplicably reappears, turning up at the apartment of one of the girls who was present when she disappeared. Yuki is soon reunited with her friends but shortly afterwards collapses and the group rushes her to a nearby hospital where they are unable to find anyone to treat their friend. With little option but to wait in the hospital, they begin to look for help but soon find things are not as they seem. As the night wears on, the friends begin to relive the events from a decade ago and soon come face to face with the terrible truth behind Yuki's disappearance.

There's no doubt that Shimizu has an eye and ear for creepy imagery and sound – the first Ju-on film was genuinely scary – but once 3D is involved then such concerns tend to play second fiddle to a perceived need to show off the technical process, and the reaction so far to the film has been less than ecstatic. Still, you never know, and you'll be able to judge for yourself when The Shock Labyrinth 3D is released on UK DVD 0n 31st January 2011 by Chelsea Films at the RRP of £14.99. The release wil feature bioth the 2D and 3D version of the film and two pairs of 3D glasses.