Overview (Spoilers Below):
Yayoi and Eiko have found the perfect home for the Graduates, but they soon discover the dark history of the family haunting the house—as well as their plans for Eiko.
Our Take:
Their S-rank adventure is taking another detour to search for a new place to store their Graduates. However, Eiko and Yayoi are handling this situation this time, as Keitaro is still sitting on the sidelines due to a Graduate’s curse. So it’s taking similar pages from the Castle H ruins arc, with two members of the spirit-hunting trio confronting the spirits. This time, the girls inspect their newfound, abandoned house that houses a twisted curse involving a desperate family who lived there.
The curse is known as the “House of the Virgin Conception”, and based on the name alone, I already expected it to be another WTF scenario going in. This particular curse happened when a father and daughter were seeking salvation from the mother’s accidental death. Unfortunately, the “salvation” I’m mentioning doesn’t mean forgiveness. The father and daughter performed sadistic rituals to earn their salvation, including birthing and killing three babies. The spirits of the father and daughter now seek the perfect birth mother to give their babies physical forms, and poor Eiko happens to be their next target.
“The House of the Virgin Conception” may just have the most batshit insane plot I’ve seen from Dark Gathering regarding its cult-like rituals and depiction of pregnancy. If you think real pregnancy is scary, then you haven’t watched this terrifying venture. I initially thought the one involving a suicide club was very disturbing, but I’m now ready to put my foot where my mouth is after watching this episode. It’s unsurprisingly another frightening scenario that puts Eiko in Keitaro’s position regarding her being a victim of a pregnancy curse, mainly due to Karlii Hoch’s harrowing performance as Eiko.