Two years after Noroi: The Curse terrified Music Box audiences, Japanese found-footage horror king Kôji Shiraishi returns to MBOH with his latest, About a Place in the Kinki Region. Although it’s based on a similarly format-busting online novel by author Sesuji (recently translated into English), the plot of Kinki plays like Shiraishi’s greatest hits as a pair of journalists set out to investigate the disappearance of one of their colleagues, only to uncover an ancient evil underneath all the urban legends and internet rumors that threatens to swallow them both.

One nice thing about Kinki is that Shiraishi has a bigger budget than usual to play with here, and he makes great use of it re-creating different eras of Japanese television and dreaming up unholy shadow creatures. Siraishi also plays with alternating found footage with more traditional third-person filmmaking in Kinki, combining formal innovation and blood-curdling terror. This is the work of an underrated auteur at the top of his game — and it’s actually scary, too.

About a Place in the Kinki Region was released theatrically in Japan last fall, and makes its Midwest premiere at the Music Box after its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival.