Apparently, this story was a comic and an "anime", so I'm surprised fan-boys aren't out baying for the director's blood after he "destroyed/ruined/raped" their favourite cartoon with a live-action version. Which is usually the case.
For those like myself, who had no idea of Parasyte's roots, it's easy to sit back and enjoy a film that's very off-kilter, and unmistakably Japanese.
So, what's it all about?
One night, some ugly crawling creatures float down from... outer space? I don't know, it's never mentioned nor does it ever need to be, but these creatures eat a person's brain and take over the body, with the head then going Resident Evil-style psychotic to feed on other humans.
One boy falls asleep listening to music and the parasite somehow enters his hand instead, taking over just that part of his body, thus leaving him relatively intact. As the other infested bodies go about wreaking havoc, our teen with the alien hand soon finds himself up against them, and so the adventure beings.
Aimed at teenagers, the gore level and dark undertones are surprising, but add a great deal of depth to what is ultimately a boy strolling around with a talking, morphing, glove puppet. Overall though, the characters deliver, the stakes escalate and it ends just itching for a sequel, which I'm led to believe has already been completed.
If you can get past the first half an hour with the cute alien hand talking and curiously studying the world, you'll most likely go on to really get into this and will enjoy it a great deal for your effort; if you can't stand the idea of watching CGI monster fights against a puppet and find the whole concept too ridiculous to bear, then there's not much point even putting it on to begin with.
Personally, I'd definitely recommend this film.
