After seeing "Cell" I wanted to call my grandmother who, with the emergence of the world's first iPhone in June of 2007, predicted the end of civilization as we know it. Five months later she passed away, and some of my cousins whispered that perhaps it was the curse of technology that did her in, or she had been hexed by Steve Jobs.

A decade after Grandma's dire prophecy, we in Japan get to see "Cell," a horror tale involving just what Grandma had warned us about. Based on a 2006 Stephen King novel of the same name and actually co-written by the horror master himself, "Cell" begins with an unnerving sequence in an airport. Divorcee dad Clay (John Cusack) is about to board a plane to see his young son Johnny (Ethan Andrew Casto) in Maine. Like everyone else, Clay is clutching his phone, promising to go home and spend some quality time with the boy. Then Clay's phone goes dead and he hastily tries to resume the conversation on a pay phone.

But something is radically wrong: All around Clay, people have suddenly started turning into mouth-frothing, murderous brutes — the departure terminal is a war zone and the floors are slick with blood. Some sort of signal had been transmitted from mobile phones and anyone who happened to be using one (which is to say, just about the entire human race) can't help but mangle the nearest person.